Taiwan sees fall in furloughed workers in first week of August

The number of furloughed workers in Taiwan declined by 1,355 in the first week of August from the week before, largely due to the improvement in the employment in the F&B, wholesale and retail sectors, based on data released by the Ministry of Labour (MOL).

The number of staff on unpaid leave went down to 55,332, down from 56,687 on August 2. 

However, there was an increase in the number of employers who implemented unpaid leave in the first week of August, from 4,388 to 4,447. This excludes employers in the sectors of accommodation and F&B, where the number of firms that had implemented furloughs fell by about 10% in the first week of August. 

Meanwhile, those in the travel and tourism sector saw a rise in furloughed workers as of August 6, increasing by about  2,000 from the previous week, as the government’s pandemic relief subsidies to businesses in that sector ended on Jul 31, Huang Wei-chen, director of the MOL’s Department of Labour, told Focus Taiwan. 

READ: Taiwan’s self-employed to benefit from government subsidies

During that one-week period, the number of employers in the sector implementing furlough increased by 365. 

The highest number of companies with furloughed workers are in the F&B and accommodation sector (1,053), the wholesale and retail sector (1,018), and the support services industry (936), according to official data.