TAIPEI After years of boasting one of the strongest economies in Asia, Taiwan has fallen on hard times, prompting growing numbers of people to seek out greener pastures across the strait in mainland China.

The island's jobless rate hit a record high of 5.17 percent in august, high for an island that has transformed itself over the past two decades into the world's third largest producer of computer hardware, DPA reported.

That success has also caused wages to rise, forcing old economy manufacturers to close plants at home and relocate to cheaper manufacturing bases in China.

More worrying is that high-tech companies, the main drivers of the island's recent economic prosperity, are also shifting operations to the mainland, causing job seekers to look farther afield. That process could also gather speed after a recent economic conference recommended the government ease restrictions on investment in China.

''In July last year, a total of 1,618 people put in their resumes looking for jobs in the mainland, but that number climbed to 4,112 in July this year," said Monica Chiu, marketing manager at Taiwan Online Recruiting Agency.

The number of job vacancies on the mainland listed by the agency has also been steadily rising, she said, with 1,505 openings available in July, compared with 433 during the same month in 2000.

Adding to the gloom in Taiwan are the countless media reports telling stories of Taiwanese who have packed their bags and moved to new jobs and lives in thriving mainland cities such as Shanghai.

For many, the lower cost of living and accommodation is a powerful incentive to uproot at a time when the island remains mired in domestic political bickering and gloomy economic data.

Books have appeared on store shelves in Taiwan about living in China, while one television show even features a mainland opera singer who teaches viewers the Shanghainese dialect.

It's far removed from the optimism that permeated Taiwan in March last year when opposition candidate Chen Shui-Bian won a landmark victory in the presidential election. Chen's victory ended the nationalist party's half century grip on power and installed the democratic progressive party, which has traditionally backed formal independence from China.

But optimism in the wake of the victory has faded as political squabbling between the new government and the opposition-dominated legislature resulted in legislative gridlock.

Most importantly, the U.S. economic boom of the nineties, which had fuelled Taiwan's own economy and shielded it against the regional financial crisis of 1997-98, faltered.