Taiwan's jobless rate rises to new high of 3.74 pct in June

TAIPEI -- Taiwan's unemployment rate rose to 3.74 percent in June, setting a new high since November 2021, the island's statistics agency has said.

A total of 442,000 people on the island became unemployed in June, 8,000 or 1.87 percent, more than the last month, said the agency.

The unemployment rate over the past six months is 3.66 percent on average, down 0.27 percentage points from the same period last year, the agency added.

As fresh graduates began job hunting in June, the rising unemployment rate was partly attributed to a seasonal effect, said the agency. Also, many companies were forced to make cutbacks or even close down their business due to the lingering COVID-19 epidemic on the island.

According to the island's disease monitoring agency, Taiwan has recorded more than 4.4 million local COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile, 11,372,000 people on the island found employment in June, slightly more than the last month, while the average figure for the first half of this year was 11,422,000, declining 0.37 percent year on year, according to the agency.