With the presidential election just over a month away, a survey has shown that more than 60 percent of this year's graduates are less interested in campaigning and more concerned with finding a job.
According to the results of a poll released on Sunday by the research Web site www.1111.com.tw, nearly half of this year's 450,000 graduates from universities, colleges and senior high schools do not pay attention to political issues, but 65 percent are concerned about being able to find a job after leaving school this summer.
Some 53 percent of the would-be graduates responding to the poll said they would immediately enter the job market in June -- the equivalent of at least 270,000 new job seekers.
Around 60 percent said they had started looking for work, while 60 percent also said they had taken language and computer courses to sharpen their competitiveness, the poll indicated.
But the poll also found that more than 80 percent of employers attach most importance to new job seekers' communication abilities, professional knowledge and ability to adapt. Language proficiency and computer skills came second.
Sixty-seven percent said they would use the Internet to look for work, followed by 48 percent who would use newspapers and 39 percent who would use government agencies or Web sites.
The survey was carried out between Feb. 6 and Feb. 14. Results were based on data from 1,386 valid questionnaires.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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