A growing number of business enterprises may want to consider the hiring of temporary staff in an effort to cut costs, a local executive said yesterday.
"It is estimated that the demand for temporary workers rose 30 percent over the past year," said Vivian Wang (王國珍), manager of Intelligent Corp (精英人力資源), a job bank founded in 1991.
The demand of temporary workers, primarily for entry-level jobs such as customer service representatives, operators, translators and security guards, has risen dramatically since the end of last year when economy began to slow down, Wang said.
According to the Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs, some 200,000 Taiwanese have found work via temporary job services.
"And we believe for the short term, the negative economic situation will send the demand for temporary staffing upward," said Chen Shen-hsien (
In Taiwan, temporary employment agencies pay the workers' insurance fees and bonuses until the work contract ends.
"Since businesses don't have to cover temporary worker benefits and can hire on a seasonal basis, labor cost can be greatly reduced.
"American Express Taiwan, for example, has reportedly recruited temporary workers, reducing their manpower expenses by about 15 percent," Wang said
Temporary staffing is popular among foreign companies. About 80 percent of Intelligent's clients are foreign enterprises such as IBM, Intel and American Express, she said.
Young job seekers may be most suitable at temporary jobs.
"People interested in taking short-term jobs have to be able to adjust to new environments and quickly learn new skills," said Liu Hsiu-chen (
RSS