Taiwan's jobless rate may have leveled off for the time being, but it is expected to rise again after Chinese New Year, headhunters said yesterday.
"The nation's unemployment rate is not likely to decline below 5 percent before next February or March," Frank You (游偉誌), a manager at 104 Job Bank, said yesterday. You said that unemployment is expected to rise again after the Lunar Chinese New Year in February and worsen to 5.5 percent after university graduates begin to search for jobs in June.
Agreeing with You, Wayne Shiah (
Shedding middle management staff will create more job opportunities for other types of workers, he said.
"Many corporations may start laying off mid-level management personnel by flattening their managerial structures and recruiting more low-level administrative staff," Shiah said.
The recruiting professionals, however, optimistically said job choices would improve for those with the right background. They predicted a rise in employment opportunities for telecommunications workers, hardware/software engineers and administrative and sales staff next year.
On Sunday, 104 Job Bank reported that, on average, 0.8 jobs were available for each job seeker, while last month there was only 0.5.
Citing a manpower bank survey yesterday, Shiah said that "industries from the international trade sector are upbeat about WTO entry and 30 percent of international trade-related industries are considering salary increases."
Taiwan's WTO accession, however, is expected to negatively impact the agricultural sector and therefore worsen unemployment. But president of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (
He said that job opportunities in the service industry, including insurers and bankers are expected to rise though mergers planned to reinforce competitiveness.
Wu said he expected to see more job openings for white collar workers after WTO entry.
He said that industries would be looking to "adjust their structure to become more competitive."
He warned, however, that the government needs to develop a "social safety net" by providing subsidies and training to the jobless.
Although unemployment is leveling off, many remain insecure about the job market. Even those who still have jobs are beginning to panic.
"Some 40 percent to 50 percent of those that are still employed have begun searching for other job prospects in the event that they suddenly become laid off," said Chen Yi-yen (
Chen said he was optimistic about a recovery in the high-tech industries early next year.
With jobs often hard to find in Taiwan, many are now looking to China. About 10 percent of the job bank's 140,000 job seekers are looking for work in China, You said.
The job bank has 2,000 job opportunities available in China, and Taiwanese have already taken 900 of those positions, he said.
Job opportunities offered by Taiwanese businesses in China are mostly from traditional industries and the information technology sector, he said.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
RSS