IT industry to boost workforce by 15% this year: job bank

The nation's IT industry is expected to increase its workforce by 15 percent this year to meet growing sales, online human resource agency 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行) said yesterday.

To meet the booming demand for IT professionals, the job bank held a Technology Industry Career Fair in Taipei on Saturday, with 40 large IT firms in attendance, representing more than 10,000 job opportunities.

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) offered the most job opportunities at the event, with 329 and 219 respectively.

System software-related and manufacturing and production jobs were in greatest demand, comprising 14.12 percent and 13.63 percent of the openings respectively, the job bank said.

Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), an assistant human resource officer at Asustek, said the company "will offer up to 1,000 job opportunities this year as a result of spinning off our contract production business last year after [Asustek] president Jerry Shen (沈振來) projected that sales would climb to NT$700 billion [US$22.62 billion] by 2010."

One job seeker, surnamed Lin, said she was interested in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (TSMC, 台積電) employment package, including training.

These factors were important, Lin said, adding that they would benefit her future career path.