As soon as the graduation ceremonies come to an end, newly turned out university graduates have to look for jobs, pounding the keyboards and working their mobile phones. Taiwan’s unemployment rate last year was 4.39 percent, with the jobless rate for new graduates aged 20 to 24 hitting a high of 12.71 percent.
That means new graduates account for much of the overall level of unemployment. This could be because new graduates are waiting to find their ideal job or are preparing to undertake national professional examinations and many do not have immediate financial pressure placed on them by their families after graduation, given the nation’s low birth rate. In economic terms, this is known as frictional unemployment.
Given the high unemployment rate for new graduates, Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) has highlighted that several programs have been launched to create more job opportunities and increase resource allocation to fresh graduates including youth business start-up loan schemes and a farm rental program. The youth business start-up loan aims to assist and provide training to young people to help them start their own business in their home town, which could also potentially fill up more local job vacancies. The farm rental initiative, a Council of Agriculture project, helps young people who are interested in farming and agriculture to rent farms from landowners and give them support.
Meanwhile, surveys by the recruitment Web site 1111 Job Bank found that companies are less likely to recruit fresh graduates and this has gradually increased over time. Most jobs are largely open only to candidates with a certain level of experience or type of higher education degree.
Another recruitment agency, 104 Job Bank, has said that graduates from technical colleges are more likely to obtain job interviews than graduates from other institutions. The main reason is technology college students get specialist skills training which involves taking tests or programs for professional licenses and certificates during their school years.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has also announced that it will relax regulations on Taiwanese students and residents who want to work in China, which could cause a China-driven brain drain.
Given these challenges, the government should review its labor policy by taking into consideration the nation’s low birth rate and its aging population and launch reforms to upgrade industries. Taiwanese entrepreneurs, for their part, should consider building up a more comprehensive supply chain and bring to an end some of their costly and inefficient outsourcing to create more local job opportunities. Furthermore, in-school training and internship programs are needed to strengthen the abilities of young people to meet employers’ expectations, thus encouraging the latter to hire new graduates.
Cooperation between industry and universities could be another way to help young people enter the labor market, but the government needs to have relevant policies in place to protect these inexperienced youngsters from being exploited.
Gary Chen is a public relations officer and international affairs specialist at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), former chairman of Broadcasting Corp of China and leader of the “blue fighters,” recently announced that he had canned his trip to east Africa, and he would stay in Taiwan for the recall vote on Saturday. He added that he hoped “his friends in the blue camp would follow his lead.” His statement is quite interesting for a few reasons. Jaw had been criticized following media reports that he would be traveling in east Africa during the recall vote. While he decided to stay in Taiwan after drawing a lot of flak, his hesitation says it all: If
When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) first suggested a mass recall of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, the Taipei Times called the idea “not only absurd, but also deeply undemocratic” (“Lai’s speech and legislative chaos,” Jan. 6, page 8). In a subsequent editorial (“Recall chaos plays into KMT hands,” Jan. 9, page 8), the paper wrote that his suggestion was not a solution, and that if it failed, it would exacerbate the enmity between the parties and lead to a cascade of revenge recalls. The danger came from having the DPP orchestrate a mass recall. As it transpired,
Elbridge Colby, America’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, is the most influential voice on defense strategy in the Second Trump Administration. For insight into his thinking, one could do no better than read his thoughts on the defense of Taiwan which he gathered in a book he wrote in 2021. The Strategy of Denial, is his contemplation of China’s rising hegemony in Asia and on how to deter China from invading Taiwan. Allowing China to absorb Taiwan, he wrote, would open the entire Indo-Pacific region to Chinese preeminence and result in a power transition that would place America’s prosperity
All 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), formerly of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), survived recall elections against them on Saturday, in a massive loss to the unprecedented mass recall movement, as well as to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that backed it. The outcome has surprised many, as most analysts expected that at least a few legislators would be ousted. Over the past few months, dedicated and passionate civic groups gathered more than 1 million signatures to recall KMT lawmakers, an extraordinary achievement that many believed would be enough to remove at
RSS