An average of 1.6 months of salary will be awarded to the nation's employees as year-end bonuses for last year, with the financial sector topping the list by receiving an average 2.6 months of salary, an executive of the Web-based 104 Job Bank (104 人力銀行) said yesterday.
"The average of 1.6 months of salary in year-end bonus saw a slight increase of 0.01 months of salary compared with the figures for 2006," Fang Kuang-wei (
The number of companies that have confirmed handing out year-end bonuses for last year, 81.4 percent of the total, however, saw a 5.1 percent decline compared with a year earlier, Fang said.
Manufacturing industries, listed second after the financial services and insurance industries, are expected to give out an average of 1.65 months of year-end bonus for last year, up 0.03 months year-on-year.
The construction and real estate industries, which came in third with an average of 1.65 months of year-end bonus for last year, remained the same as in 2006, 104 Job Bank's latest survey results showed.
RESEARCH
"Our research found that 32.9 percent of companies said they would not increase their employees' salaries this year, with only 18.3 percent of them saying they would," Monica Chiu (邱文仁), marketing director of 104 Job Bank, said yesterday.
"It is worth noting that 44.2 percent of the companies said they would make salary adjustments based on each individual employee's performance, and not the company as a whole," Chiu said.
He added that this type of floating salary system would become the norm in the future.
According to the survey, jobs that are more likely to see a raise in salaries this year are sales (36.1 percent), research and development (23.5 percent) and management positions (20.1 percent).
ABILITY
"Companies in recent years are especially looking for sales representatives that possess both the ability to sell their products and services and the expert knowledge and experience that are required in jobs such as wealth management specialists in the banking sector," Chiu said.
Meanwhile, workers who are more likely to see a decline in salaries this year are new employees with careers in secretarial positions (32.4 percent), manufacturing (10.2 percent) and human resources (6.5 percent), the survey showed.
The survey was conducted between Dec. 11 and Dec. 17 last year, with a total of 1,176 valid respondents, at a 95 percent confidence level, and a 2.9 percent of standard deviation.
The interviewees were members of 104 Job Bank.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of