Low wages a major factor for Taiwan's unemployment

TAIPEI, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Low wages were acknowledged one of the major factors for the unemployment in Taiwan, according to a survey released by the island's local statistics agency Thursday.

Among the island's 431,000 unemployed, a total of 168,000, or 39 percent, have secured a job offer at one point, but 46 percent of them declined mainly due to low pay.

The remaining 263,000 jobless also complained about a lack of job offers with desirable salaries or in their interests, according to the annual employment survey, which is conducted in May each year to exclude seasonal factors such as graduation and Chinese Lunar New Year holidays.

In May, the average monthly wage in Taiwan edged up 1.63 percent year-on-year to 38,656 new Taiwan dollars (about 1,289 U.S. dollars), but 2.71 million employees, or 31.47 percent of the total number of wage earners surveyed, still earned less than 30,000 new Taiwan dollars that month.

Meanwhile, about 805,000 Taiwanese employees work part time or temporary jobs, accounting for 7.1 percent of the total employed population, both setting record highs in May.

Flexible work hour was the main reason cited by these employees, closely followed by failure to find desirable full-time positions, according to the survey. Enditem