75% Of Taiwan Office Workers Living In Poverty: Poll

from Yahoo News

Approximately 75 per cent of office workers in Taiwan are living in poverty, with many in debt because of decreasing earnings and rising consumer prices, according to the results of a survey released Tuesday by an online part-time and outsourced staffing service.

A total of 36 per cent of workers surveyed by the Jcase job Website said they are "very poor, " with another 38 per cent saying they are "poor."

While 22 per cent of respondents think their financial status is "average, " only 3.4 per cent said they are well-to-do or quite wealthy.

As many as 43 per cent of respondents attributed their poverty to their limited, even decreasing, income. Other reasons mentioned by those polled include the large number of expenses they have to cover and soaring consumer prices.

Asked to rate on a scale of 0-10 the level of agony they feel as a result of poverty, 74 per cent marked 6 or above, with 20 per cent giving the highest rating for their level of agony.

The average agony index of the respondents stands at 7.16.

The survey shows almost 57 per cent of the workers are in debt, with nearly 44 per cent shouldering credit card debt, 37 per cent burdened with housing debt and 1.7 per cent owing loansharks money.

It was found that 18 per cent of the workers are in deficit every month, almost 40 per cent only manage to make both ends meet and approximately 21 per cent have no more than NT$5,000 (US$153) left after deducting all expenses every month.

Those who have a surplus of more than NT$5,000 per month account for only a little more than 21 per cent.

In an effort to make extra income, approximately 40 per cent of office workers have a second job, while 57 per cent are planning to find one, according to the survey.

The survey was conducted between Nov. 20 and Dec. 10 on 5,028 office workers via online questionnaires, with the margin of error registering plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.