Nearly 80 percent of local companies have plans to recruit new employees this year, the highest in four years, with the financial sector expecting to release the most job vacancies, according to a survey released yesterday.
The survey, conducted by local Chinese-language Cheers Magazine (快樂工作人雜誌), interviewed the nation's top 1,000 businesses in the manufacturing, service and financial sectors between March 7 and March 25.
Although a higher proportion of companies reported recruitment needs, overall hiring is nevertheless shirking, with 72.3 percent saying they will offer fewer than 50 positions, up from 60.8 percent last year, said the magazine's reporter Eric Shih (石振弘), who is in charge of the project.
Companies deciding to go on a hiring spree with 200 or more openings available dropped from 6.67 percent last year to 4.5 percent.
"The economic outlook is expected to be gloomier this year, forcing businesses to turn tighten their belts," Shih said.
The report found that salespeople and R&D personnel are the most wanted, as over 50 percent of the interviewed companies are eager to attract people with skills in these fields. While the need for manufacturing and quality control staff shrunk by 2.6 percent to 36.36 percent this year.
University graduates are advised to sharpen their language skills, as 45 percent of companies prefer applicants passing the intermediate level General English Proficiency Test (GEPT, 全民英檢) and nearly 60 percent of the polled executives expect job hunters to be equipped with Japanese capability.
Yeh Ching-huang (
Kevin Huang (黃俊豪), senior vice president for human resources at Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), said students interested in entering financial institutions must be quick learners, as financial reforms involving mergers and acquisitions are currently underway, bringing upon new challenges.
In addition to these basic requirements, the Cabinet-level National Youth Commission encouraged students to bring their creativity into full play.
"Perhaps students have a weaker ability to resist pressure, but these young students have creativity that will help drive up corporate growth," said commission chairwoman Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君).
The report also revealed the top-10 universities most favored by polled companies. Among the nation's 159 schools, National Cheng Kung University continued to secure the top place and became a nine-year title-holder since the survey was inaugurated in 1997.
RSS