November 9, 2006
The unemployment rate in Sept. dropped to 3.96%, according to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).
The average unemployment rate from Jan. to Sept. this year was 3.92%, the lowest for this period in six years. DGBAS forecasts that the yearly average could drop below 4%.
DGBAS also announced statistics from its human resources survey, which showed that there were 419,000 unemployed in Sept. The 3.96% unemployment rate, which represented a 0.13 percentage point drop from Aug, reflects the fact that college graduates are finding work, said DGBAS.
After further quarterly adjustments, DGBAS revised the Sept. rate again to 3.84%, making this figure the lowest on record since March 2001.
The average number of employed for the past nine months was 10.08 million people, an increase of 163,000 people over last year, which is an indication of a strong domestic employment market, said DGBAS.
The DGBAS statistics also showed that from Jan. to Aug. this year, the rate of employees entering the workforce was 2.57%, the highest in six years, while the retirement rate was 2.36%, the highest in five years. The employment turnover rate was 2.47%, also the highest in six years and with the workforce entrance rate marking higher than the retirement rate. With a strong economy, people have been willing to take the risk of changing jobs, which indicates a thriving domestic labor market, said Huang Jiann-jong, deputy-director of the DGBAS Census Bureau.
In addition, average real salary for the first eight months of this year grew slightly by 0.11% coinciding with a falling inflation rate, according to DGBAS.
Addressing the question of whether salaries would be able to match rising commodity prices, Huang said that he believed that commodity prices would fall, and the effect of rising inflation on salary growth has already diminished.
Company profits will be a key influence on real salary growth in the future, and while average real salary for the first eight months of this year has not shown large-scale growth, the growth nonetheless has been "appropriate", said Huang.
(Economic Daily News)
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