Government agencies work together to boost aboriginal employment

This article was written by Cecilia Fanchiang and published by the Taiwan Journal on September 9, 2005. According to this article, the Council for economic Planning and Development (CEPD), the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) and the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) in Taiwan have joined forces to boost employment among the nation's aboriginal population. Their goal is to create 8,000 jobs for Taiwan's indigenous peoples between 2005 and 2008, and to reduce the unemployment rate among indigenous peoples by 2 percent.

Figures released by the CEPD indicate that 218,000 of Taiwan's 333,000 aborigines aged 15 and above were ready to enter the labor force in 2004. Among them, about 5.76 percent, or 12,500 individuals, were unemployed. This rate is high when compared to the overall unemployment rate of 4.41 percent in Taiwan.