The monthly growth of job openings has shown signs of slowing, as companies appear more conservative in recruiting in the second half of the year, an online manpower agency said in its latest report.
The 104 Job Bank report came after the government released last month’s unemployment rate on Thursday, showing unemployment edged up 0.02 percentage points to 5.16 percent. That represents the first month-on-month increase in four months.
The agency said that the number of job vacancies this month grew 0.8 percent month-on-month, down from 5.9 percent recorded last month, and urged new graduates to be aggressive in job hunting while openings are still plentiful.
“The job market will soon enter a ‘correction period’ as companies prepare to appraise employee performance at the end of the year,” the agency’s public relations manager Max Fang (方光瑋) said, adding that many businesses will not rush to hire in the second half. Citing a previous survey, Fang said that nearly 80 percent of enterprises said they began recruiting staff before this month. With school graduates starting to look for employment, “new job vacancies are gradually being filled.”
The report showed that the number of jobseekers has surged to a record high of around 416,000 this month, up more than 50,000 from last month, which Fang said would increase competition in the job market.
The number of job opportunities averaged 340,000 in the second quarter, posting a 67 percent gain from a year ago, with jobs in Taoyuan County seeing the largest increase at 94 percent, followed by Hsinchu County at 85.8 percent and Tainan County 75.7 percent.
“As there are science and industrial parks based in these counties, the recovering manufacturing and high-tech industries have created more job opportunities here,” Fang said.
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