TAIPEI—Taiwan has cut the number of foreign workers and maids working on the island by 24,000 since November, as a result of the global economic slowdown, it was reported Sunday.
As of February, there were 349,000 foreign workers and maids in Taiwan, largely from Southeast Asia, compared with 373,000 in November, the Economic Daily News reported, citing the Council of Labor Affairs.
The number of foreign laborers is expected to drop further in the coming months, with 30,000 to be sent home this year, the council has announced.
The move comes as Taiwan’s unemployment rate rose to a record high of 5.75 percent in February on business downsizing and closures amid a recession, the government said.
But the council expected the cut in foreign workers to slow after the manufacturing sector showed signs of improvement, with many high-tech firms receiving large orders from China.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has announced it is canceling unpaid leave from April 1 to meet the Chinese orders.
Taiwan, the sixth-biggest economy in Asia, has been hit hard by the global financial crisis, with record falls in its key export sector, particularly among bellwether electronics firms.
In Manila, The National Anti-Poverty Commission claimed over the weekend that more than 75,000 previously unemployed Filipinos had found jobs through the government’s emergency employment program.
The number of Filipinos who had landed jobs under the Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program rose to 75,016 as of March 23 from 64,000 in late February, commission head Domingo Panganiban said in a statement.
“The latest reports from the field indicate that around 11,000 more Filipinos were hired to work [under the program] between Feb. 25 and March 23 of this year,” Panganiban said.
He said the government’s budget for the program had also increased after national agencies started hiring people dislocated by the global economic slowdown. AFP, with Roderick T. dela Cruz
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
