《TAIPEI TIMES》Unemployment rate hits 23-year low for September

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS: Fewer people were retrenched due to business closures and downsizing compared with August, while more first-time jobseekers found work

By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporter

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The unemployment rate last month edged down 0.08 percentage points to 3.48 percent from a month earlier after the June to August graduation season ended, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday.

The figure was also 0.18 percentage points lower than a year earlier and the lowest recorded for the month of September in 23 years, the agency said in a report.

The lowest unemployment rate for September was 3.1 percent in 2000, it added.

After seasonal adjustments, the unemployment rate rose 0.02 percentage points to 3.44 percent from August, the report showed.

The number of unemployed people last month fell by 10,000 sequentially to 416,000 and by 17,000 from a year earlier, it said.

Apart from university graduates entering the job market, two other factors contributed to the decline: The number of first-time jobseekers failing to land positions dropped by 6,000 monthly and people who lost their jobs due to business downsizing and closures fell by 3,000, the report said.

The number of people employed in the domestic services sector increased by 1,000 from a month earlier, but industrial and agricultural sectors cut 2,000 and 4,000 jobs respectively, it said.

Overall, the local labor market has stabilized, given the declines in the unemployment rate and the number of people who are unemployed, it said.

The stabilization of the labor market was also reflected in youth unemployment figures.

The unemployment rate among people aged 15 to 19 edged up to 8.5 percent from 8.46 percent in August; fell to 11.79 percent from 12.47 percent for people aged 20 to 24; and climbed to 5.93 percent from 5.9 percent for those aged 25 to 29, the report showed.

People with a university degree had the highest unemployment rate at 4.77 percent, followed by high-school graduates at 3.18 percent and graduate degree holders at 2.67 percent, the data showed.

The average unemployment period last month rose slightly to 20.9 weeks, as it took first-time jobseekers 18.2 weeks to land positions, while others spent 21.7 weeks finding jobs, the report said.

The number of people who were unemployed for more than a year last month declined by 5,000 from August to 47,000 and dropped by 15,000 from a year earlier, it said.

In the first nine months of this year, the unemployment rate was 3.52 percent, down 0.17 percentage points from a year earlier, the agency said.

The jobless rate historically tends to fall further in the fourth quarter as graduates continue to land jobs, but warrants closer observation this year due to global economic and geopolitical uncertainties, it said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES