The nation's job market is expected to weaken slightly in the first quarter of next year, as employers are conservative about hiring amid the growing political uncertainty ahead of the presidential elections in March, employment service group Manpower Inc said yesterday.
The net employment outlook for the local job market could drop 1 percentage point to 14 percent from a year ago, joining most Asian markets' downtrend and making Taiwan, along with China, the weakest job markets in Asia, Manpower's latest survey said.
But the projection represented a 3 percentage point rebound from this quarter.
"A lot of local employers are taking a wait-and-see approach about new hiring, awaiting new economic and labor policies following the presidential election," said Terence Liu (劉玿廷), general manager of Manpower's Taiwan branch.
Taiwanese companies also sought to reduce labor spending through job cuts or by attrition to offset rising costs resulting from rising commodity prices, Liu said.
Overall, of the 1,540 Taiwanese employers interviewed this quarter, 23 percent intended to increase their workforce, while 9 percent sought to reduce jobs. Some 60 percent said their workforce would hold steady.
Liu said the US sub-prime credit crisis did not seem to have had a negative impact on the nation's job market, as demonstrated by a significant increase in job opportunities in the financial and banking sectors next quarter.
Employers in the finance, insurance and real estate sectors had a more than 6 percentage point rise year-on-year, or a 20 percentage point rise quarter-on-quarter, Manpower said.
"Rather than the severe job cuts seen at some well-known banks in the US, foreign banks [in Taiwan] such as Standard Chartered are recruiting staff to cope with outlet expansion after absorbing local banks," Liu said.
Job market prospects for China were expected to be weak next quarter primarily due to the implementation of a new labor law, which would increase labor costs for companies with operations in the mainland, especially Taiwanese manufacturers.
"If the government could offer incentives for Taiwanese companies with factories in China to bring their operation back to Taiwan, the local job market would improve faster," Liu said.
The job market in the region's eight countries and territories surveyed is expected to be positive, although employers in Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan said they would slow the pace of hiring compared to the same period last year, Manpower said.
Job markets in Singapore and India would be the strongest, the employment service group said.
Globally, employers in 16 of 27 countries and territories anticipate softer hiring plans compared to a year ago. On a quarterly base, job prospects were expected to improve in 12 countries and territories.
RSS