The average non-regular wage in the first quarter of this year declined for the first time in three years as Taiwanese companies held a more conservative outlook about the nation’s economy, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The average monthly regular wage rose 2.25 percent year-on-year to NT$41,674 in March, bringing the first quarter average wage to NT$41,535, up 2.18 percent from a year earlier, the agency said.
However, the average non-regular monthly wage continued its downward trend, falling 16.58 percent year-on-year in March, the agency said.
The agency attributed a first-quarter decline of 1.16 percent in non-regular compensation to NT$23,462 to a reduction in performance-based bonuses and overtime pay.
In the first quarter of last year, non-regular compensation rose 8 percent, the agency said.
“We found that companies were generally more conservative about paying bonuses [this year], as the economy has not yet emerged from a trough. GDP growth for the first quarter weakened to 1.72 percent,” DGBAS Deputy Director Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨) told a media briefing.
It remains to be seen whether employers would cut non-regular wages further, Pan said.
The nation’s economic performance in the next few months would be crucial, Pan added.
The decline in the average non-regular wage dragged down the annual growth of total compensation by 0.95 percent year-on-year in the first three months, the slowest pace in the past three years, Pan said.
LESS OVERTIME
Average overtime hours in the manufacturing sector, another gauge of business performance, continued to decrease for the sixth consecutive month, falling by 2.2 hours in March from a year earlier and declining by 1.7 hours year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, the agency said.
“At the same time, we also found that manufacturers recruited more carefully in the first quarter compared with last year and 2017, partially due to their conservative outlook,” Pan said.
The number of employees in the manufacturing sector rose 0.78 percent year-on-year, the slowest pace in the past three years, while the number of employees in all sectors grew 1.18 percent, the slowest pace in the past 10 years, the agency said.
The number of employees in the electronic components sector, the industry with the most employees in manufacturing, fell 0.13 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, Pan said.
A decline in the number of employees in the industry is rare, but it was likely due to firms laying off employees ahead of the Lunar New Year, Pan added.
The number of employees in the textile sector fell 1.99 percent in the first quarter, he said.
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