Nearly 70 percent of this year's college graduates who are seeking jobs remain unemployed -- and they are unlikely to find jobs until early next year, a survey showed.
"According to our study, only 31.5 percent of job seeking graduates already found jobs, while the remaining 68.5 percent people are still unemployed," said Wayne Shiah (
The survey, conducted between Aug. 2 and Aug. 20, was based on 4,230 responses to a questionnaire targeting college graduates looking for work since spring graduation.
A lack of working experience was the major reason college graduates didn't get hired.
"Most companies are less willing to spend time training new workers since the economy is slow, preferring instead to use those with experience," he said.
More than one-third of the graduates said they can't find jobs because what they have learned at school doesn't match what employers are looking for.
"Students majoring in literature, history, sociology and art said that they were having difficulty finding jobs in fields related to their majors," Shiah said.
Those with majors in electronics, engineering and computer science reported finding jobs easily, with more than 45 percent of those with such majors already finding employment.
These numbers may not reflect the entire job market for graduates, according to a survey released by the same job bank back in June, where only 27 percent of this year's college graduates actually planned to look for work after graduation.
Some 31 percent of this year's graduates said that they plan to continue their studies and another 30.4 percent of male graduates chose to meet their military-service requirements.
"Dim business prospects also kept recent graduates away from the job market," Shiah said.
With the economy in a slump since late last year, many companies were forced to shut down or lay off staff, sending the nation's unemployment rate to 5.33 percent in October last year, leaving 527,000 jobless.
The jobless rate has slowly declined to 4.98 percent in April.
"Taking into account the 60,000 students who just graduated from colleges, high schools or specialized schools, the unemployment rate jumped again to 5.23 percent in July, leaving 523,000 without work," Chen Jin-cherng (陳金城), deputy director of the census bureau said early this month.
Chen estimates that the jobless rate will be around 5 percent by the end the year.
Job Bank's Shiah agreed that "unemployed graduates are unlikely to find jobs until early next year."
"Only some 7 percent of companies said they are going to recruit in the fourth quarter this year ... Graduates that don't find jobs by September may have to wait at least another six months -- until the Lunar New Year holiday."
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