Taiwan is likely to see the strongest staffing demand in nearly five years in the first quarter of next year, a report released yesterday by Manpower Inc said.
Of the 1,066 employers polled this quarter, 28 percent said they would increase their staff in the coming quarter, 6 percent planned a decrease in hiring and 65 percent expected to maintain their current payrolls, the Milwaukee-based employment services provider said.
The latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey indicated that next quarter will be the most promising hiring environment for employers in this country since the second quarter of 2005.
The report said the improving environment is particularly good news for potential job seekers as the results in a “net employment outlook” figure — calculated by subtracting the number of employers planning to reduce staffing levels from the number planning to hire workers — stands at a strong 25 percent for the first quarter of next year, up 6 percentage points from the current quarter and 28 percentage points higher from the first quarter of this year.
“Many are telling us they plan to recruit staff in the next three months — especially to strengthen their sales forces,” Terence Liu (劉玿廷), general manager of Manpower Services (Taiwan) Co, said in an e-mailed statement. “However, employers are not hiring indiscriminately; they are evaluating candidates carefully and most of the recruitment process is much longer than before.”
The jobless rate fell for the second month to a four-month low of 5.96 percent in October from 6.04 percent in September, compared to a record 6.13 percent in August, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Nov. 23.
The number of people losing jobs dropped by 8,000 people to 653,000 in October from September, while the number of the employed rose 32,000 to 10.31 million people.
The survey found employers in the transportation and utilities sector continued to be the most optimistic for the fourth consecutive quarter, with the net employment outlook rising 1 percentage point to 29 percent for the first quarter. That was followed by the manufacturing sector with 27 percent. In contrast, the retail and wholesale trade will have the weakest staffing demand, at 12 percent.
The other segments — the finance, insurance and real estate sectors (21 percent); the service sector (23 percent) and the mining and construction sectors (18 percent) — all reported higher “net employment outlook” figures from a year ago, the report said.
“Employers in the Transportation & Utilities and Manufacturing sectors report the strongest hiring expectations in the months ahead. Most of the companies have to fill vacancies in critical positions, especially in sales representative positions,” Liu wrote in his e-mail.
Employers in 25 of 35 countries and territories surveyed expect positive hiring activity in the quarter ahead, Manpower 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
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
RSS