Economic Change and the Structure of Opportunity for Low-educated Workers in Taiwan

"How economic change affects job availability for less-skilled workers in Taiwan? Employment and earnings are the primary sources of support for most non-elderly adults. Thus, a key to understanding changes in the wellbeing of low-income populations is to understand the jobs and wages available to less-skilled workers. The macro-economy influences unemployment rates, wage shifts, and overall economic growth, all of which are important factors that determine the economic well-being of low-income families. This study is going to focus on the trends in labor market and macroeconomic circumstances that particularly affect less-educated and low-wage workers. We look at changes in work behavior among individuals by skill level and, then, examine unemployment and job availability. Secondly, the focus of this study is put on trends in earnings. We discuss the reasons behind substantial earnings shifts among lower-paid workers and higher-paid workers by gender since 1994. Moreover, we investigate the relationship between macroeconomic and labor market factors and poverty rates by using the vector autoregression (VAR) technique to analyze multivariate time-series data collected from 1978 to 2015. Finally, this study will discuss policy implications based on empirical results. Based on empirical evidence, we suggest that maintaining a high-employment economy and increasing skill levels for low-educated workers are important long-term solutions to the reduction of poverty in Taiwan.