Nearly 50 percent of the nation’s salaried workers were concerned that the recently signed cross-strait trade pact could have a negative impact on the local job market, and more than 70 percent expressed a desire to work in China, a 104 Job Bank survey showed yesterday.
The survey, which polled 2,292 Taiwanese workers on June 28 and June 29, found that 31.9 percent of respondents believed that the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) would likely lead to higher unemployment, while 15.8 percent feared that the agreement would make it harder for people to find jobs.
Max Fang (方光瑋), the online manpower agency’s public relations manager, said that less than 40 percent of the workers surveyed were upbeat about the trade pact, with only 13.5 percent saying the job market would benefit from it.
“Following the signing of the ECFA, 9.3 percent of Taiwanese are anxious about working in China and up to 57.4 percent did not rule out looking for work there,” Fang said.
The survey showed that 35.5 percent of those who wished to work in China said they hoped to find better job prospects there, while 27.1 percent said they could ask for a pay raise or promotion by relocating jobs in China.
A manager in charge of recruitment at 104 Job Bank said that the salary range for Taiwanese managers in China was about one to one-and-a-half times higher than that in Taiwan, in addition to benefits, such as accommodation and subsidies for children’s education and travel expense back to Taiwan.
A separate survey by the manpower agency, which polled 1,420 Chinese adults between May 5 and June 5, found that more than 90 percent of respondents said they wanted to work in Taiwan if the local job market were open to Chinese workers.
Among those who hoped to work in Taiwan, 27.5 percent said that they wanted to increase their overseas work experience; 27.3 percent said they had never been to Taiwan; and 13.6 percent said Taiwan and China shared the same culture, the survey showed.
Fang said respondents who have experience working with Taiwanese think that Taiwanese workers had the edge in foreign language proficiency, global vision and expertise, while Chinese people were more responsible at work and focus more on teamwork than their Taiwanese counterparts.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last