Taiwan to create 137,000 jobs

TAIWAN'S government aims to spend more than US$500 million (S$690 million) to create 137,000 jobs this year, in its latest move to ease the island's unemployment, an official said on Friday.

The Council of Labour Affairs, which is already spending NT$9.3 billion (S$414 million) to create jobs, has pledged the additional funds in a bid to keep the jobless rate below five percent, the official said.

The council will subsidise local governments to expand their staff in tourism promotion, labour safety and green industries, as well as the private sector to hire middle-aged workers, he said.

Taiwan's unemployment rate stood at 5.76 per cent in February while Premier Wu Den-yih has offered to resign if he fails to push it below five per cent by the end of this year.

It has been improving steadily from a record 6.13 per cent in August, as the island's export-dependent economy emerged from its worst post-war recession with a pick-up in global demand.