On December 18, 2002, the Executive Yuan approved the Public Works Employment Program and set up the Executive Yuan Public Works Employment Advancement Commission. The Program put forth 120 sub-plans, securing additional budgets of NT$20 billion to offer 75,000 job opportunities. The additional budgets were passed on June 5, 2003 after going through the entire three-reading procedure of the Legislative Yuan. On June 18, 2003 the President promulgated the Additional Budgets. Moreover, the Executive Yuan announced that the Provisional Regulations Governing Public Works Employment Program shall be enforced for one year until 17th of June, 2004. The Program entailed executing 120 plans. Whereby between January 2003 and June 2004, the Public Service Advancement and the Scheme of Wage Subsidy for SMEs offered 82,021 job opportunities to unemployed people. Government-owned employment service institutions referred 285,279 jobseekers to employers for selection, resulting in the employment of 109,813 candidates. The Council for Economic Planning and Development estimated that the Program induced a decrease of the unemployment rate in 2003 by 0.23%. In order to avoid aggravating the unemployment problems facing the underprivileged and unemployed after the termination of the Program at the end of 2004, which would affect the labor market unfavorably, the Council for Economic Planning and Development, the Council of Labor Affairs, and others related ministries, commissions, and councils jointly discussed and drafted the Pertinent Follow-up Measures to the Public Works Employment Program in the Second Half of Year 2004. This was then fully implemented,offering 43,548 job opportunities by December 2004. The decrease of the unemployment rate in 2004 was estimated at 0.11%, which, coupled with the 0.20% decrease of the unemployment rate in 2004 due to the Public Works Employment Program, led to an estimated 0.31% drop in the unemployment rate in 2004. Thereby achieved the goal of
