Poll says new graduates frequently change jobs

Many fresh graduates in Taiwan responding to a recent survey appeared to be job-hoppers, with 48 percent having changed jobs at least once over the past five months since leaving school.

The results of the survey, which were released on Monday, also revealed that 57.73 percent of the respondents are preparing to leave their current jobs after the upcoming Lunar New Year.

The survey was carried out between Dec. 1 and Dec. 14 by the online employment service provider 1111 Job Bank among 2,037 workers or job-seekers who graduated from school this past summer.

The survey shows that 23.12 percent of respondents have not found a full-time job since graduation, including 26.77 percent of senior high school graduates, 25.29 percent of college graduates, 25 percent of master's or doctoral degree holders and 22.24 percent of university graduates.

Among those who have found employment, 23.63 percent have changed jobs once over the past five months, 11.24 percent have done so twice and 12.84 percent have done so at least three times.

On the reasons for quitting, 30.52 percent mentioned failure of the job to meet their expectations, 26.64 percent mentioned a desire to find another job with higher pay and better benefits and 24.63 percent mentioned a lack of career advancement prospects.

A total of 19.41 percent of the successful job-seekers found a job even before graduation, compared with 22.67 percent who only did so after searching for more than three months.

Compared with 51.40 percent of successful job-seekers who found a job that matches their field of study, 48.60 percent were hired for jobs unrelated to their area of expertise.

The survey revealed that the starting salaries of those who found jobs average NT$17,960 (US$553) for junior high school graduates, NT$23,846 for senior high school graduates, NT$20,024 for senior vocational school graduates, NT$22,085 for college graduates, NT$23,200 for university graduates and NT$34,186 for master's degree holders.

The poll showed that graduates in the fields of medicine or health enjoyed the highest average starting salary at NT$25,733, followed by those who studied science, engineering or information technology.