Competition for first-time jobseekers may be tougher this year amid a slowdown in hiring, while the number of college graduates increases, a survey released by a local job agency showed yesterday.
The 104 Job Bank’s (104人力銀行) database showed that the total number of positions filed by employers declined 5.5 percent last month from a year earlier.
Positions offered to first-time jobseekers accounted for 41.7 percent of total offers last month, down from the 43.9 percent posted a year ago, the online job agency said in a report.
To make the situation worse, the number of college graduates is expected to rise 1 percent, or 3,000, from a year ago to 333,000 this year, the report said.
The job bank’s marketing director, Regis Chen (陳力孓), attributed the trend to global economic uncertainties, which had a negative impact on Taiwanese exports and further dragged down demand for new employees in export-oriented industries.
Positions open to first-time jobseekers in the electronics sector showed a decline because of the impact, it said.
DOMESTIC DEMAND
However, demand for first-time jobseekers in industries focusing on domestic demand, especially for retailers and restaurants, showed an increase this year Chen said.
Positions offered to first-time jobseekers by these domestic-oriented industries totaled 12,635 last month — up 2.25-fold from five years ago — with the retail sector leading the increase, data showed.
In related news, a government poll released yesterday showed that one of the hardest questions job applicants faced was why did they leave their previous job.
The poll conducted by the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training’s eJob Web site showed that 28.05 percent of interviewees found it difficult to explain why they had quit their previous employment, while 11.87 had trouble answering why they wanted the job they were applying for.
Other questions that applicants struggled with included why they were worth the salary they were asking for (10.73 percent) and how they would solve the world’s hunger issues (9.92 percent), according to the poll.
The questions that most employers ask in an interview are meant to determine why the applicant chose to apply for the job and to identify their work values, the eJob poll said.
INTERVIEW TIPS
The Web site suggested that interviewees avoid complaining about their previous job and try not to appear too desperate to find a new position because these factors are used to evaluate attitude.
In addition, applicants should prepare for their interviews, which would make them less nervous, the site said.
On the issue of salary negotiation, eJob recommended that applicants project confidence, provide documents to prove their ability and talk about their contributions in their previous job to justify their salary demands.
The survey, conducted from May 1 to May 31, received 1,230 valid responses.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is