Taiwan had 517,000 jobless citizens in January 2011, equivalent to an unemployment rate of 4.64% which decreased 0.03pp on month and 1.04pp on year, according to statistics released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) on February 24.
Taiwan's population aged 15 and over stood at 19.169 million in January, consisting of 11.14 million for labor force and 8.030 million for non-labor force with a labor participation rate of 58.11%, DGBAS indicated.
In January, Taiwan's unemployment rate was lower than 9% in the US, 7.9% in the UK and Germany, 7.8% in Canada, 4.9% in Japan but higher than 3.8% in Hong Kong, 3.6% in South Korea and 2.2% in Singapore, DGBAS pointed out.
| Taiwan unemployment rate: Breakdown by age group, January 2011 |
| Age group | Labor participation rate | Unemployment rate |
| 15-24 | 28.74% | 12.27% |
| 25-44 | 85.02% | 4.81% |
| 45-64 | 60.28% | 2.85% |
Source: DGBAS, compiled by Digitimes, February 2011