Survey reveals graduates' starting salaries going up

With the economy picking up this year, new college graduates are expected to receive higher starting salaries this year than those who graduated last year, a report released by 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday.

Graduates with a master's degree or higher will receive an average of NT$31,092 (US$970) per month, bachelor's degree holders will receive NT$29,521 per month. Meanwhile graduates from vocational schools will receive NT$25,894 monthly, the online human resources agency predicted.

Figures

The figures are respectively 1.3 percent, 2.1 percent and 2.7 percent higher than last year, the report said.

By industry, the medical and biochemical sector on average offered the highest pay to entrants at NT$31,497 per month.

These were followed by the information technology sector at NT$29,914 and the financial sector at NT$28,651, the firm's report added.

By position, R&D-oriented engineers, system software developers and hardware and communications engineers were the top three highest-paid posts.

Employers paid these groups NT$30,844, NT$30,728 and NT$29,521 per month respectively, the report said.

By region, companies in metropolitan northern Taiwan paid better than other regions. That however did not mean that people who work in the north have more money to spend.

Prices

"After taking consumer prices in different regions into account, people in southern Taiwan have the highest disposable income, despite the fact that they receive lower salaries than those working in northern and central Taiwan," 104 Job Bank marketing manager Monica Chiu (邱文仁) said during a press conference yesterday.

The agency applied the average starting salaries in the three regions to calculate average expenditure, and found that the average monthly disposable income in southern Taiwan was NT$833 more than in central Taiwan and NT$941 more than in northern Taiwan.

Because the majority of job seekers prefer to look for work in large-sized corporations for higher wages and benefits, on average, medium-sized enterprises have a tendency to offer higher pay in order to attract more talent, Chiu said, citing the report.