China fever appears to be waning after a report by 104 Job Bank Corp (104
The report said falling interest in China is spurred by SARS fears. "Since the outbreak of SARS, especially serious in China, China job seekers have been frightened away."
Hits on the company's China employment opportunities site have slid from 13,000 in January to 12,000 last month.
Another market analyst from 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行) agreed, but said the go-west fever began losing momentum back in 2000.
"White-collar staff and people with experience in China are losing interest in working there," Wayne Shiah (
The number of China-bound Taiwanese has dropped by 30 percent annually from 2000, Shiah said. For example, there were 46,000 job hunters interested in working in China last April, but that number fell to 32,500 last month, he said.
One reason for the decline is skilled competitors from around the world are flowing into China, squeezing out Taiwanese talent, Shiah said. That competition has also driven down salaries offered to Taiwanese workers, reducing the incentive for them to work in China, Shiah said.
In addition, market demand has switched from general technical staff to management-level executives.
However, the apparent fading of China fever is only temporary according to the head of 104 Job Bank.
"In the long term, China's affluent resources and market will not only lure Taiwanese workers, but also talent from around the world," general manager Rocky Yang (
Yang said Taiwanese working in China would become a regular phenomenon and "one of the standard job choices" in the near future.
"Our database shows that six out of 100 job hunters are interested in entering the Chinese job market," Yang noted.
Chang Fu-mei (
Meanwhile, Taiwan's youth appear keen to chase their dreams across the Taiwan Strait.
"Many young people are still eager to work in China regardless of the SARS epidemic," Chang said.
And despite declining opportunities and salary, students still show a strong interest in entering that market.
"I'd like to get a job in China after graduating," said Hsu En-cheng (
Another student at the university majoring in Material & Mineral Resources Engineering, Lo Cheng-yu (羅振宇), also expressed his ambition to work in a country where the economy is growing.
"I'll try to look for a job in China even if the pay is lower," Lo said. "With work experience in China, it'll be easier to advance to a higher position in a company hierarchy when I return to Taiwan."
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six