Taiwan had 546,000 jobless citizens in October 2010, equivalent to an unemployment rate of 4.92% which decreased by 0.13pp on month and 1.04pp on year, according to statistics released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) on November 22.
Taiwan's population aged 15 and over stood at 19.118 million in October, consisting of 11.106 million labor force and 8.012 million non-labor force, with a labor participation rate of 58.09%, DGBAS indicated.
In October, Taiwan's unemployment rate was lower than 9.6% in the US, 7.9% in Canada, 7.7% in the UK, 7% in Germany, 5% in Japan, but higher than 4.2% in Hong Kong, 3.6% in South Korea and 2.1% in Singapore, DGBAS pointed out.
| Taiwan unemployment: Breakdown by age, October 2010 |
| Age group | Labor participation rate | Unemployment rate |
| 15-24 | 29.01% | 13.56% |
| 25-44 | 84.75% | 4.96% |
| 45-64 | 60.33% | 3.07% |
Source: DGBAS, compiled by Digitimes, November 2010