Monday, June 22, 2009
AP - Tuesday, June 23TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's jobless rate hit a record high of 5.8 percent in May, the government said Monday, as new graduates started to look for jobs and more companies closed amid the economic slump.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said in a statement that a total of 633,000 people were unemployed, up from 625,000 in April.
One reason for rising unemployment, it said, was companies going out of business because of the recession.
Taiwan's GDP shrank 10.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009, following an 8.4 percent contraction in the final quarter of last year. The government is forecasting the economy to contract 4.25 percent this year.
To battle rising unemployment, the government unveiled a 320 billion New Taiwan dollars ($9.5 billion) plan in early February to help create some 150,000 jobs in 2009.
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