Fewer salaried workers have been changing jobs amid the economic sluggishness, while those who have recently changed jobs have found they are being paid less than they earned at their previous job, an online job bank said yesterday.
Chiu Wen-jen (邱文仁), a supervisor at 104 Job Bank (104 人力銀行), said the number of office workers who intended to change jobs this year had declined 14 percent from last year, quoting the results of a recent survey by the firm.
About 30 percent of those who succeeded in changing jobs in the past three months found that their starting salaries in their new companies was lower, by an average of 14.3 percent, than their previous salary, Chiu said.
He said the bleak business climate had reduced people’s willingness to change jobs, with 30.4 percent of respondents choosing to remain at their job to “save their rice bowls,” double the figure recorded last year.
A high of 76 percent of respondents said they had become much more timid in making changes in the face of the economic downturn, Chiu said.
Of those who sought to change jobs, a great majority mentioned failure of their current salaries to meet their expectations or reaching their promotion ceiling as reasons for their decision, Chiu said.
The poll found that employees in the tourism, mass communication and manufacturing sectors were keenest to change jobs, as those have been the hardest-hit by the economic downturn and heavy layoffs are most likely to occur before the end of the year, Chiu said.
The poll also found that employees in the financial services and high tech sectors — two fields that are traditionally highly coveted — had become increasingly restless and more inclined to change jobs, Chiu said.
More than 60 percent of employees surveyed in these two sectors said they wanted to change careers, Chiu said, adding that of these, about 30 percent in the financial services sector wanted to move to other service industries.
Less then 20 percent wanted to remain in their current employment, Chiu said.
Taiwan’s unemployment rate in October hit a five-year monthly high of 4.37 percent, one of a number of indicators reflecting the country’s weakening labor market as a result of the global economic crisis, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
Nvidia is to open a quantum computing research lab in Boston, where it plans to collaborate with scientists from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Thursday. Huang made the announcement at Nvidia’s annual software developer conference in San Jose, California, where the company held a day of events focused on quantum computing. Nvidia added the program after Huang in January said that useful quantum computers are 20 years away, comments that he sought to walk back on Thursday while joined onstage by executives from quantum computing firms. “This is the first event in history
RSS