Shih Jian-chuh, director of the Second Department under the NCY, cited statistics compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) as indicating that the unemployment rate for college graduate students reached 4.11 percent in 2004, slightly lower than Taiwan’s overall jobless rate of 4.44 percent.

But the corresponding rate in 2005 surged to 4.23 percent, higher than the island’s annual jobless rate of 4.13 percent.

In 2006, college graduate students saw their jobless rate rise further to 4.36 percent, compared to Taiwan’s overall unemployment rate of 3.91 percent.

Shih said that the NYC will launch a program to help college graduate students gain temporary employment next year.

Under the program, Shih said, the NYC will offer a total subsidy of NT$600 million to 150 leading local enterprises, which, in turn, will be required to offer 100 job opportunities each for college graduate students for a period of six months.

During the temporary employment period, the NYC will grant a monthly allowance of NT$5,000 to each student, with the monthly salary to be determined by the enterprises on their own.

At the end of the six-month employment, the enterprises can determine whether to retain those who performed well as their official employees.

Those who are not retained by the enterprises will find it easier to find jobs due to their newfound “working experience.”

In related news, a survey conducted by the Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) showed that 68 percent of those college students with part-time jobs said the jobs they take have nothing to do with what that they studied.

The survey also indicated that up to 66 percent of college students with part-time jobs fail to be covered by the labor insurance system, and up to 94 percent of student part-timers enjoying labor insurance don’t know the exact figure of their insured monthly pay.

It was found that 61.5 percent of the polled students hoped the government would set a basic hourly pay for part-timers, 57.8 percent expected the government to offer part-time job opportunities, and 57.5 percent would like to see more information on part-time jobs.

At the moment, the maximum hourly pay stands at NT$351 for home teaching, and the minimum hourly pay is only NT$81, mostly for working at convenience stores.

Part-timers subject to the hourly pay system score an average monthly income of NT$10,915, compared to NT$14,697 for the daily pay system and NT$16,181 for the monthly pay system.

The same poll found that 53.7 percent of college students become part-timers mainly to earn pocket money, 23 percent do so just because they won’t want to stay at home, and 17.4 percent to develop social working experience, among others.

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