TAIPEI, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan's unemployment rate in March, after seasonal adjustment, rose by 0.06 percentage points to 3.76 percent, the highest in the past 10 months, the island's statistics agency said Wednesday.

The unemployment rate has risen for two consecutive months, the agency said in a press release.

About 261,000 people worked less than 35 hours weekly in March, up 15.48 percent over February and the highest since January 2019, according to the agency.

The number of employed people across the island totaled at 11.51 million in March, down 10,000 from February, while the number of unemployed people totaled at 445,000, up 2,000. Service sectors reported the biggest reduction of employment.

The agency attributed the rise of unemployment to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease and estimated that the situation might be worse in April.

The latest survey made by Cathay Financial Holding Co. showed that about 87 percent of the respondents thought that the island's economy is worse than six months ago, the highest since the survey was first launched in March 2010, while 68.7 percent of them thought that the economy might be worse in the next six months, also reaching the record high, the survey report said.

The survey was made from March 1 to 7, receiving about 17,000 questionnaires through e-mails. Enditem

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