'Taiwan government to offer 40,000 jobs'

TAIPEI: Taiwan's government plans to create at least 40,000 jobs, after the island's unemployment rate hit a three-year high in August, a report said Sunday.

Media citing officials on Taiwan's top government economic planning body, said various government agencies would soon meet to decide where the jobs would be created.

The jobs could be on the books as early as next month, the report said. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who took office earlier this year after a landslide victory at the polls in March, has made lowering the jobless rate one of his priorities, as he tries to revive the island's sluggish economy.

The unemployment rate in August rose to 4.14 per cent from 4.06 per cent the month before, largely on an increase in the number of first-time job seekers, the government said.