TAIPEI: Taiwan’s unemployment rate fell slightly last December to 3.79 percent, with 446,000 people out of work, 9,000 fewer than in the previous month, according to government figures released Monday. The figure was 0.08 percentage points lower than in November and a year earlier, said the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).
Compared with the December levels of unemployment over the past years, the 3.79 percent unemployment rate was the same as in 2014, DGBAS official Pan Ning-hsin said. Pan said a lower unemployment rate is not unusual during the winter break and Lunar New Year holiday, as certain business sectors normally hire more people to meet demand. The DGBAS data showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped 0.02 percentage points last December to 3.82 percent.
