Hundreds of high-paying pilot and flight attendant jobs with major local carriers are now up for grabs as the labor needs of the domestic aviation industry have increased on the back of the economic recovery, online manpower agency 1111 Job Bank said yesterday.
Citing statistics by the Tourism Bureau, the Taipei-based 1111 Job Bank said in a statement that tourist arrivals rose to 440,000 last month, up 20.34 percent from a year earlier, indicating that local tourism is picking up.
Henry Ho (何啟聖), the job bank’s public relations director, said that China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) has 300 job vacancies and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) has about 200 openings and is looking to recruit more pilots and stewardesses.
A survey conducted by the job bank showed that up to 75 percent of recent female graduates considered becoming a flight attendant, but only 23 percent actually applied for such a job because of the high-stress working environment and strict requirements.
Given the fierce competition in the job market, Ho said that those who wish to apply for a job in the aviation industry should improve their foreign language proficiency, as well as relevant professional knowledge by pursuing further studies.
Tray Liao (廖玲惠), chairwoman of the Airline Career Development Association (中華航空觀光發展協會), said that 31 percent of pilots in Taiwan were foreign pilots, 31 percent used to work for the nation’s Air Force and 31 percent were self-funded. Liao made the remarks during a recruitment orientation held by 1111 Job Bank and the association in Taipei yesterday, which drew about 300 people, twice the venue’s seating capacity of 150.
She said that a majority of self-funded pilots did their flight training in the US or Australia, which cost between NT$2 million (US$63,300) and NT$3 million for a period of about one to one-and-a-half years, adding that applicants with such training have an 80 percent chance of getting an offer.
Monthly salaries for pilots in the nation range from NT$60,000 to NT$80,000 per month, while flight attendants make about NT$40,000 to NT$45,000 per month, compared with NT$60,000 paid by Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) and up to NT$80,000 by Singapore Airlines.
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day