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Taiwan jobless rate at 16-month high in February

Xinhua, March 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Unemployment in Taiwan stood at 3.95 percent last month, a new high since October 2014 mainly due to holiday factors.

The jobless rate in February was up from 3.87 percent for January and 3.69 percent in February 2015, said a press release from Taiwan's statistics agency on Tuesday.

The number of unemployed people rose slightly to 462,000, compared with a total of 11.23 million employed. Many people change jobs after the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 8 this year, while some temporary jobs came to an end during the same period, the agency said.

The unemployment rate among the young (aged between 15 and 24) was 11.89 percent, compared with 4.16 percent for the 25-44 age range, and 2.2 percent for those aged between 45 and 64.

The agency also said the monthly average salary of employees in industrial and service sectors rose about 45 percent year on year in January to around 75,321 new Taiwan dollars (about 2,320 U.S. dollars), as many companies handed out year-end bonuses in January. Endi