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Updated Saturday, January 23, 2010 12:40 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Jobless rate soars in 2009

While Taiwan's average unemployment rate reached an all-time high of 5.85 percent in 2009, the jobless rate in December fell for the fourth consecutive month, reflecting an increasing desire to hire among employers as the domestic economy began showing signs of improvement.

Last year's average of 639,000 unemployed set a record, said Liu Tien-su, deputy director of the Fourth Bureau of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting & Statistics (DGBAS).

According to the results of the Cabinet agency's latest manpower resources survey, the 2009 average annual jobless rate rose by 1.71 percentage points from the 2008 level, with the average number of unemployed marking an annual increase of 189,000, - both of which were new highs.

Meanwhile, Liu said, the number of people who lost jobs due to layoffs or company closures increased 185,000 from the previous year's level, also a record rise.

In 2009, the number of people affected by unemployment also hit a historic high of 1.363 million.

Other record-setting figures included the average 139,000 unemployed in the 45-64 age bracket, with a broadly defined unemployment rate of 7.35 percent.

During the whole of 2009, an average of 10.279 million people were employed, down by 124,000 from the 2008 level.

In terms of education levels, the number of people who have received university or higher education accounted for 24.99 percent of the total workforce last year, consistent with a gradual upward trend that reflects an improvement in Taiwan's manpower quality, Liu said.

On another optimistic note, unemployment in December lowered to 5.74 percent, down 0.12 percentage points from November, while the seasonally adjusted jobless rate edged down 0.18 percentage points to 5.8 percent from the previous month, according to Liu

As many as 632,000 people remained out of work, but the figure was 13,000 less than a month earlier,

“The overall jobless rate has fallen for the fourth consecutive month,” Liu said.

The number of employed people in Taiwan totaled 10,384,000, 15,000 more than in November.

At the same time, the number of unemployed people classified as having lost their jobs due to company closures or layoffs shrank by 11,000 in December, the sixth straight monthly drop.

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Comments

January 24, 2010 stupidboy99@

Sounds like last years news.