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TAIPEI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The average real monthly wages of Taiwan's salary earners in 2016 fell 0.77 percent year on year, as consumer price increases outpaced income growth, the island's statistics agency said Friday.
In 2016, the average real monthly salary of Taiwan's industrial and service employees stood at 48,790 new Taiwan dollars (NTD), up 0.62 percent from a year ago.
However, the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, increased 1.4 percent. With inflation factored in, real monthly earnings shrank 0.77 percent to 46,422 NTD -- even less than the figure from 16 years ago, the agency's statistics showed.
However, employees' work hours were reduced. Each employee worked 169.5 hours a month on average last year, down 5.8 hours from a year ago, according to the statistics.
Industrial and service employees totaled nearly 7.45 million in Taiwan.
The agency also said the jobless rate in January 2017 stood at 3.78 percent, dropping 0.09 percent year on year.
