Most Taiwanese employers aim to raise their headcounts next quarter, although the pickup is less evident among manufacturers, a survey by US human resources firm ManpowerGroup Inc found.
The employment outlook stands at 22 percent for the next three months, up 3 percentage points from this quarter and unchanged from a year earlier, the survey of 1,026 companies found.
The outlook is the brightest for the services sector and wholesale and retail trade, as 29 percent of companies plan to add staff to meet an expected increase in business over the summer, ManpowerGroup said.
The entry of new department stores and other retail outlets suggest a need for more workers, it said.
Summer is the traditional peak season for consumer spending in Taiwan, which is being counted on to prop up the economy this year as exports disappoint due to a global slowdown and the US-China trade dispute.
Mining and construction sector companies reported their strongest hiring mood in four years, with a net employment outlook of 27 percent, as the sector benefits from a pickup in demand for factories as firms move operations home from China to avoid US tariffs, the survey showed.
Job seekers can expect a positive hiring climate in the restaurants and hotels sectors with an employment outlook of 22 percent, while hiring activity is also likely to gain momentum in transportation and utilities sectors with a reading of 21 percent, the survey said.
Hiring prospects are the weakest in the manufacturing sector, with only 17 percent of responding companies looking to increase their staff, as most Taiwanese companies with production lines in China are taking a hit from global trade tensions and are conservative about hiring activity, it said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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