* Jobless rate matches 2001 record high of 5.33 percent
* More job losses in manufacturing, retail sectors
* Analysts expect jobless rate to rise further
By Lee Chyen Yee
TAIPEI, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Taiwan's January seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to a record high level of 5.33 percent as the island, caught up in the global downturn, suffers from possibly its longest recession.
Analysts expect Taiwan's jobless rate to climb further to around 6 percent in coming months as many technology, financial and retail companies take a hit from an exports slump and a record economic contraction of 8 percent in the fourth quarter.
"Our jobs market is facing a very severe challenge now," Huang Jiann-jong, an official at the statistics agency, told a news conference on Thursday. "We will only see significant improvement in the jobless rate when there is economic growth."
The last time the tech-reliant economy's unemployment rate hit 5.33 percent was in December 2001. In December the jobless rate stood at 5.04 percent.
"Jobless rate is a lagging indicator and we expect that to rise above 6 percent some time this year," said Cheng Cheng-mount, an economist at Citigroup.
"Although the government introduced a lot of stimulus measures, the impact might be limited given the huge number of job losses," Cheng said.
Taiwan's key companies, such as chip maker United
Microelectronics Corp <2303.TW>
Earlier in February, top state planner Chen Tain-jy said a T$105.7 billion government spending plan would help create 190,000 to 220,000 jobs this year, though that might be insufficient to make up for the wave of job losses.
Taiwan's unemployment rate, which has been climbing for the past 10 months, is higher than numbers reported by some other Asian economies. South Korea, for example, reported an unemployment rate of 3.3 percent in January.
Analysts said Taiwan's unemployment is bound to rise this year, though the state planner aims to keep the average jobless rate at 4.5 percent as the global downturn hits the island's manufacturing and financial sectors.
In 2008, Taiwan's average jobless rate was 4.14 percent,
the highest since 2004 and up from 3.91 percent in 2007.
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