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Updated Tuesday, May 24, 2011 11:45 pm TWN, The China Post news staff

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Jobless rate drops to 31-month low

Taiwan's unemployment rate stood at 4.29 percent in April, a 31-month low, announced the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) yesterday.

According to the agency, the 4.29 percent figure was a decline of 0.19 percent from March and 1.1 percent from April 2010. The number was the lowest since October 2008.

After seasonal adjustment, April's unemployment was 4.35 percent, a decline of 0.07 percent from March and the 20th consecutive monthly decline.

A total of 10.648 million people were in the work force in April, a rise of 19,000 or 0.18 percent from March, DGBAS said. A total of 477,000 people were out of job, a decline of 22,000 from March.

The number of people out of work due to closure of seasonal or temporary jobs declined by 9,000, while those out of job due to downsizing and shutdowns of businesses fell by 3,000, DGBAS said.

In March, unemployment stood at 4.48 percent. However, during that month, there were still 99,000 first-time job seekers who were unemployed, according to 104 Jobs Bank.

By population group, unemployment totaled 90,000 for those between 20 and 24, and 221,000 for graduates from college or graduate schools.

According to Chen Li-chieh, manager with 104 Jobs Bank, in March, unemployment for people between 15 and 24 stood at 12.42 percent, or 2.77 times the 4.48 percent total, higher than the two-time standard set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Chen attributed the high jobless rate among youths to a failure in job-matching. Most young people felt they were matched with the wrong industry, the wrong company, the wrong salary and the wrong corporate value, he said.

About 33.1 percent of college graduates were able to find jobs within three months after graduation, a rise of 2.7 percent from March last year.

“It's advised that people prepare for the jobs market before graduation,” Chen said. “They should read news related to the jobs market, position themselves close to it, and find out what they really want to do with their lives, to narrow the job search effort.”

According to 104, by the beginning of May, its website had 370,000 openings, of which 184,827 were opened to first-time jobseekers, a rise of 54 percent from the same period last year.

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