Jun 22, 2007

Taiwan: Historic Unemployment Drop


According to a recent survey, as a result of Taiwan’s economic growth, unemployment on the island has fallen to 3.9%, the lowest rate in six years.

According to a recent survey, as a result of Taiwan’s economic growth, unemployment on the island has fallen to 3.9%, the lowest rate in six years.

Below are extracts from an article written by James Peng and published by Bloomberg.com:

Taiwan's unemployment probably fell in May to close to the lowest rate in six years as Chinatrust Financial Holding Co. and other financial services companies hired extra workers.

The seasonally adjusted rate declined to 3.9 percent from 4 percent in April, according to the median estimate of 11 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The rate reached 3.8 percent in September and October, the lowest since February 2001. […]

Job gains may drive wage increases, stoking consumer spending and helping sustain Taiwan's economic expansion. The government last month raised its 2007 economic growth forecast to 4.4 percent from a 4.3 percent prediction in February.

``We did see some banks have re-started the recruiting process,'' said Forest Chen, chief economist at Taiwan Securities Investment Advisory in Taipei.

Credit-card issuers such as Chinatrust Financial are adding more workers to regenerate business lost after incurring bad loans two years ago. Taiwan's fourth-biggest financial services company by market value said in a statement on April 23 it plans to hire 50 assistant relationship managers this year.

[…]

Economic Growth

Taiwanese banks' bad debts began swelling in 2005 when consumers failed to pay credit card bills. Banks wrote off NT$115.2 billion of credit-card debt last year, more than twice the NT$48.3 billion in 2005, according to the island's Financial Supervisory Commission.

Signs of faster growth in Asia's fifth-largest economy may spark job gains and drive a pickup in domestic demand.

Taiwan's economy expanded 4.15 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, accelerating from 4.04 percent growth in the fourth quarter, a report on May 24 showed.