Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/24/2020
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 24 (CNA) The number of furloughed employees in Taiwan continued to rise over the past week because of the growing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country's economy.

As of April 24, a total of 18,265 workers had agreed with their employers to go on unpaid leave, up 3,444 from seven days earlier, while 804 companies had unpaid leave programs, up 216 from a week earlier, the statistics showed.

The number was the highest since the global financial crisis, when the number of people on unpaid leave peaked at just over 238,000 in February 2009.

Taipei and New Taipei registered the highest number of furloughed workers at 8,480, consisting of 2,763 employees at 182 companies in Taipei and 5,717 workers at 253 firms in New Taipei.
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