Taipei, May 22 (CNA) The rate of unemployment Taiwan fell in April to 3.67 percent, the lowest level in 23 months, as the domestic economy continued to recover, according to government figures released Monday.
Unemployment in April fell 0.11 percentage points from the previous month and 0.19 percentage points from a year earlier to the lowest level since May 2015, when the jobless rate was 3.62 percent, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.
After seasonal adjustments, the drop in the jobless rate for April was 3.78 percent, a decline of 0.06 percentage points from March, the DGBAS said.
There were 432,000 people out of work in April, down 13,000 from March and 19,000 from a year earlier, the DGBAS data showed.
Meanwhile, the number of people who lost their jobs in April due to business downsizing or closures fell by 4,000 from the previous month, and the number of first-time jobseekers declined by 3,000, the data showed.
The number of workers who quit in April because they were unhappy with their jobs fell 3,000 while the number of those who lost their jobs due to termination of seasonal or temporary job contracts declined by 2,000, the DGBAS said.
Pan Ning-hsin, deputy director of the DGBAS' census department, said the lower unemployment rate in April indicated that the job market in Taiwan was improving amid a recovery of the economic fundamentals.
Unemployment in the 15-24 age group was 11.62 percent, the highest among all age groups in Taiwan, but was down from 12.01 percent seen in the previous month, according to the DGBAS data.
The jobless rate in the 25-29 age bracket also declined, falling to 6.61 percent from 6.64 percent a month earlier, according to the DGBAS data.
Among persons with a college degree or higher, the jobless rate was 3.95 percent, the highest among people of all education levels, but was a drop from 4.07 percent in March, the DGBAS said.
In April, Taiwan's labor participation rate was 58.70 percent, down 0.03 percentage points from March, while the number of employed people rose 0.11 percent from the previous month to 11.76 million, the DGBAS said.
In the first four months of the year, the local jobless rate averaged 3.77 percent, down 0.12 percentage points from a year earlier, the data showed.
During the four-month period, the local labor participation rate rose 0.08 percentage points from a year earlier to 58.74 percent, with the number of the employed up 0.69 percent at 11.32 million.
Taiwan's economy has been boosted by improved exports amid growing global demand, with outbound sales accounting for about 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
As a result, several economic think tanks have upgraded their forecasts for Taiwan's 2017 GDP growth to more than 2 percent, compared with 1.50 percent in 2016.
