The hiring outlook in Taiwan for this quarter has improved, as employers have become more upbeat about the economy, a yes123 (yes123人力銀行) job bank survey showed.
Yes123 said that the average wage to be offered by employers this quarter would increase slightly from a year earlier, as companies seek to secure talent as they expand.
The average wage this quarter rose to NT$34,477 from NT$34,134 in the same period last year, but was down from NT$38,553 last quarter, the survey showed.
The planned average wage was the highest for the first quarter in seven years, it said.
However, the average wage offered by employers was still shy of the average NT$40,661 anticipated by employees, it said.
The survey showed that 90.3 percent of the employers polled said that they planned to hire more people in the January-to-March period, up from 81.8 percent in a similar survey for last quarter.
The food, beverage, hospitality and leisure industry topped the list for hiring outlook, with 96.6 percent saying they would hire in the first quarter, ahead of the retail and wholesale industry (92.7 percent), the technology and information industry (92.5 percent), the old-economy manufacturing industry (91.7 percent) and the transportation and logistics industry (90.9 percent), the job bank said.
The survey showed that 28.8 percent of respondents said they were upbeat about the economy, while 19.6 percent said they were downbeat. The figures translated into a net optimism ratio of 9.2 percent, up from 7.7 percent for last quarter and 2.9 percent in the same period last year.
The net optimism ratio for this quarter was the highest since the fourth quarter of 2018, when it was 10 percent, yes123 said.
Yes123 spokesman Yang Tsung-pin (楊宗斌) told reporters that amid eased fears over trade friction between the US and China, employers have anticipated an improvement in Taiwan’s exports.
Moreover, political uncertainty would subside after the elections on Saturday, with the business sector expected to be more optimistic about the economy, Yang said.
The survey was conducted from Dec. 11 to 24 and collected 1,256 valid responses. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.77 percentage points.
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