Unemployment ticks up as graduates enter job market - Taipei Times

By Crystal Hsu /

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Taiwan’s unemployment rate rose to 3.34 percent last month from 3.27 percent in the previous month, as a fresh wave of graduates entered the job market, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. Nevertheless, last month’s figure was the lowest for June in 26 years, while broader labor-market indicators continued to point to resilience amid the nation’s technology-driven economic expansion, the agency said. The seasonally adjusted rate climbed to 3.33 percent from 3.32 percent, it said.

A man walks past a recruitment notice outside a Cosmed store in Taipei on April 23.

For the first six months of this year, the unemployment rate averaged 3.31 percent, down 0.02 percentage points from a year earlier and the lowest level for the period in 26 years, the DGBAS said. Last month, the number of unemployed people rose by 9,000, or 2.26 percent, from the previous month to 402,000, with first-time job seekers accounting for most of the increase at 5,000, the agency’s data showed.