Taiwan's jobless rate climbs for 2nd consecutive month in April

TAIPEI - Taiwan's seasonally-adjusted jobless rate rose by 0.01 percentage point from March to 3.73 percent in April, the island's statistical agency said Wednesday.

For the first four months, 438,000 people were jobless on average, or 5,000 more than the same period of last year.

The average jobless rate in January-April stood at 3.68 percent, up 0.02 percentage points from the previous year.

Young people aged between 20 and 24 registered the highest jobless rate, 11.7 percent in April, while the unemployment rate for those aged between 15 and 19 was 8.19 percent.

People with university degrees continued to have difficulty finding a proper job in April, with a jobless rate of 5.02 percent, the highest level among different education backgrounds, compared with a jobless rate of 3.52 percent for people with senior high school diplomas and 2.73 percent for those with postgraduate degrees.