Number of furloughed workers in Taiwan falls

The number of furloughed workers in Taiwan has fallen to under 13,000 as of February 7, down by 344 from the previous report on January 24. 

The Ministry of Labour (MOL) attributed the fall in numbers to the fact that firms such as travel agencies and companies in the transportation and warehouse sectors were still in the process of reporting their furloughed worker data. 

Huang Wei-chen, director of the MOL’s Department of Labour Standards and Equal Employment, expects that there will be a rise in the number of furloughed workers in Taiwan in the next report, once businesses have updated their figures. 

The number of workers taking unpaid leave over the period includes the support service industry, at 8,226, followed by the manufacturing sector, at 969, while some 790 workers in the transportation and warehouse sector took unpaid leave, official data showed. 

READ: Taiwan’s unemployment rate fell in December for sixth straight month

In recent weeks, the number of furloughed workers in Taiwan has hovered around 10,000, which indicated a stable trend, said Huang, who added that border restrictions has hit the retail and wholesale sector the hardest.