UPI semiconductor corp., a subsidiary of Asus and provider of power management IC, gave about 40 employees layoff notifications recently. Epistar cut 180 jobs at its factory both at Hsinchu Science Park and Southern Taiwan Science Park. CMC optical discs factory also decided to sack 145 workers, accounted for around 4.2% of the workforce of CMC.

Besides, Ministry of Labor in Taiwan announced yesterday the latest unpaid leave statistics, showing that the number of employee takes unpaid leave from January to August this year is amounted to 5000 cases. The number of unpaid leave in September rose sharply to 2,133 cases, hits a year high.

Ministry of labor pointed out that most companies conduct unpaid leave are small and medium enterprises, covering traditional and technological industries.

The application of unemployment benefits in August rose to 9,200 case, a significant increase compared to July, added Ministry of labor.

(TR/Yiting Wang)