About one in 10 first-time job seekers do not know which industry they wish to enter, while a similar ratio do not know what job positions they prefer, a survey conducted by the Council of Labor Affairs’ online job bank shows.
The council’s official online job bank, eJob, recently asked 1,925 people, who were new to the workforce and looking for their first full-time jobs, about what industry they wanted to work in.
The most popular choice was business services, which garnered 39.08 percent of responses.
Coming in a distant second, with 12.64 percent, were those who said they did not know which sector they wanted to work in.
This was followed by 9.77 percent who were aiming for the manufacturing industry, 7.47 percent for the high-tech sector and 5.75 percent in the recreation, tourism and hospitality industry.
Similar patterns emerged when first-time job seekers were asked about the type of positions they were looking for, with management and administrative jobs of interest of 47.7 percent of respondents.
Technical and maintenance jobs were the second-largest group, with 9.77 percent of respondents, followed closely by 9.2 percent who said they did not know what sort of job position they wanted.
Other popular professions included travel and restaurant staff (5.75 percent) and engineering, research and development (4.02 percent), the survey showed.
The council said those who are at a crossroads regarding their career path should take into consideration that a major factor influencing the availability of new jobs in the coming years will be the opening of the nation’s tourism sector to free independent travelers (FIT) from China.
The influx of individual Chinese tourists is estimated to create tens of thousands jobs in sectors from tourism, recreation and hospitality — which are most likely to be affected by the arrivals — to those indirectly affected such as services, retail, medical, cosmetic, transportation, logistics and arts, the council said.
The council said Chinese FITs are expected to generate NT$550 billion (US$18 billion) in aggregated revenues for the tourism sector next year.
The potential number of visitors from China has also prompted global operators to enter the Taiwanese market, making tourism one of the most-watched industries in the next five years, the council said.
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