Starting salaries for workers in the construction and real-estate sector averaged NT$32,900 per month last year, the highest among all professions, online 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行) reported on Wednesday.
The figure, a rise following three years of falling salaries, is NT$100 higher than that made by employees in the electronics, technology, information, software and semiconductors sector, which came in second and was the highest in 2016, 1111 Job Bank vice president Daniel Lee (李大華) said.
The real-estate sector was able to retake the top spot thanks to a recovering housing market, after several years of weak performance, he said.
Employees at financial, trust, investment and insurance companies enjoyed the third-highest monthly starting salary of NT$32,664, the survey of job bank members last year showed, with 289,422 valid samples.
The real-estate and construction sector last year also posted the largest increase of 4.2 percent, or NT$1,300.
This was followed by the farm, fisheries and water, and electricity resources sector with nearly a 4 percent increase, and the financial, trust, investment and insurance sector with 3.3 percent.
Starting salaries for employees in preschool talent teaching and after-school tutoring were the lowest, with a monthly average of NT$27,964, the survey showed.
Second from the bottom were salaries for art editing and interior design, which averaged NT$28,550, slightly lower than the NT$28,587 for employees in hair salons, restaurants and tourism.
Last year, the average monthly salary in the nation was NT$36,200, a slight increase from NT$35,893 in 2016, the survey found.
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