CLA statistics show that the number of foreign caregivers has risen by about 8,000 in each of the past five years, and now stands at 180,000. In the manufacturing sector, where Taiwanese companies have been offshoring operations for some time now, the number of foreign laborers has dropped from roughly 220,000 in the year 2000 to about 177,000 today (Fig. 1).
勞委會統計，近 5 年台灣外籍看護人數每年增加約 8,000 人，至今人數突破 18 萬人；當台灣製造業因工廠外移後，「產業外勞」人數逐漸趨緩（由 2000 年的 22 萬人下降到目前的 17 萬 7,000 人），「社福外勞」卻是一枝獨秀成長。