Taipei - Taiwan's jobless rate in May inched up 0.03 per cent to 3.84 per cent from April, with more than 416,000 unemployed people, the government statistics agency said Monday.

"Compared with April, the number of unemployed increased by 3,000 in May, and one fourth of the unemployed, or 170,000, were those with bachelor or highly academic degrees," the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said in a press release.

The rise was due mainly to the increase in the number of first-time job seekers and those who quit because they were not satisfied with their work, the agency said.

In the first five months, the average jobless rate stood at 3.85 per cent, up 0.01 per cent from the same period last year, the agency said. (dpa)