TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's jobless rate in October fell to 4.92 percent, dropping below the 5 percent mark for the first time in 23 months, the government said yesterday.
Earlier this year, Premier Wu Den-yih said the government was determined to reduce unemployment to below 5 percent by the end of this year, and if it failed he would take responsibility by stepping down.
The October jobless rate was 0.13 percentage points lower than September's and 1.04 percentage points below the year earlier figure, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.
The falling unemployment rate largely reflected improvements in the local business environment, the DGBAS said.
In October, the number of jobless people totaled 546,000, down 14,000 from September, with the number of unemployed affected by business downsizing and closures dropping 9,000 from a month earlier, the agency said.
After seasonal adjustment, the island's jobless rate stood at 4.96 percent in October, down 0.12 percentage points from September and also down 1.05 percentage points from a year earlier, it added.
Last month, the jobless rate among people with junior high school education or below was 4.37 percent and among those with senior high school education 5.26 percent.
