Prospects for graduates
Approximately 63 percent of businesses surveyed recently by 104 Job Bank have expressed their intention to hire fresh graduates this year.
The results released yesterday showed that businesses this year are offering average starting salaries of NT$33,500 (US$1,098) a month for master’s or doctoral degree holders, NT$28,833 for bachelor’s degree holders, and NT$26,202 for polytechnic graduates.
The figures reflected a 2.3 percent increase in the average starting salary for master’s degree holders compared with last year, but only a marginal rise of 0.7 percent for bachelor’s degree holders and polytechnic graduates.
The increases paled in comparison with the rise in the country’s consumer price index, which registered 1.8 percent for last year and 3.65 percent during the first four months of this year.
The survey said that the electronics and information technology sectors are offering the highest starting salaries this year are at NT$29,895; then the financial, investment consulting and insurance sectors at NT$29,559; and the medical care, environmental and health sectors at NT$28,997.
Business climate improves
The nation’s business climate improved last month as the peak export season approached and the incoming government promised to spur domestic demand, but fewer manufacturers feel optimistic about the near future, according to a survey released yesterday.
In the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research’s (TIER) monthly business climate survey, 35.6 percent of respondents from the manufacturing sector had a positive outlook for the next six months, representing a 4.3 percent drop from the figure for March.
“In the manufacturing sector, the number of respondents who held a negative view of future prospects increased by 3.8 percent to 19.4 percent in April,” said TIER president David Hong (洪德生), as producers worried that soaring international commodity prices would continue to push costs higher.
Taiwan’s service providers were more upbeat than manufacturers. The business climate index for the sector last month jumped to 121.84 points, up from March’s 118.77.
Wine fair in Taichung
A fair featuring six wineries in central Taiwan opened in Taichung City yesterday, exhibiting beverages with a wide range of flavors for participants to taste and compare.
An executive with the Chungyo Department Store (中友百貨), which organized the event, said the fair will run through June 9.
Six exhibitors — two from Nantou County and four from Taichung County — are displaying wines made of local agricultural produce such as plums, roses, rice and grapes.
Each exhibitor has either received recognition for product quality from the Council of Agriculture or has won awards at winery competitions, the executive said.
SMEs bearish on growth
Confidence over prospects for growth is slipping among Asia’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), a survey said yesterday.
SMEs across the region are counting on strong intra-Asian trade to help compensate for an anticipated slowdown in the US economy.
The UPS International Asian Business Monitor survey was carried out in 12 markets with 1,200 respondents.
Fifty-two percent of Asian SMEs said they believed that economic growth would persist, down 5 percentage points from the previous year, said the survey, which was published in the Straits Times.
SMEs across 11 markets also expressed less confidence in their own competitiveness. The exception was upbeat India.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last