TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s unemployment rate fell in November to 3.66%, the lowest level for that month since 2001, reports said Wednesday (Dec. 22).

The figure also marked the fifth consecutive drop from month to month, with 436,000 people still without work, a decline of 20,000 from October, according to data announced by the Cabinet-level Directorate-General for Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).

The percentage level was approaching the 3.64% recorded in April, just before a major local outbreak of COVID-19, CNA reported. The number of people who lost their job because of their company contracting or going out of business dropped by 8,000, while the number of first-time job seekers and workers who left their job voluntarily fell by 4,000 each in November.

DGBAS officials said the latest figures showed that Taiwan’s job market had weathered the pandemic, returning to its previous level. Due to the year-end shopping season, the unemployment rate was likely to fall a further 0.04% to 0.08% in December.

Nevertheless, there were still 229,000 employees who worked fewer than 35 hours a week, compared to about 200,000 in Nov. 2020, and 155,000 people who were unemployed because their employer had contracted or gone out of business, which was 33,000 more than in April. The two figures showed that the impact of the pandemic had not yet disappeared entirely, the DGBAS said.