Focus Taiwan
Date: 10/15/2020
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Oct. 15 (CNA) The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to cost jobs in Taiwan's manufacturing sector, which saw the number of people employed at the end of August falling about 4,000 from a month earlier, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Thursday.

Data compiled by the DGBAS said the employment number in the manufacturing sector bucked the slight upturn posted by the industrial and service sectors as a whole during the same period.

Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣), deputy director of the DGBAS census department, told reporters that old economy industries, which make up part of the manufacturing sector, suffered more impact resulting from COVID-19, because the pandemic negatively affected global demand and sent product prices down, at a time of falling crude oil prices.

As a result, the DGBAS said, the number of people hired by the textile industry fell 1,000 from a month earlier at the end of August, while the number of people employed by metal and machinery makers also dropped 1,000 and 400, respectively.    [FULL  STORY]