Taiwanese employers have a strong willingness to increase staffing in the fourth quarter of this year, especially manufacturers, with the nation reporting the second-best job prospects in the world after China, a report released yesterday by Manpower Inc showed.
Of the 1,045 employers polled this quarter, 43 percent said they would increase their workforce in the coming quarter, 3 percent planned to trim their headcounts and 53 percent expected to maintain their current payrolls, according to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.
Using the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based employment agency’s “net employment outlook” gauge — calculated by subtracting the number of employers planning to reduce staffing from the number planning to hire — which stands at a strong 40 percent for the three months ending Dec. 31, the figure is up 1 percentage point from the current quarter and 23 percentage points higher than a year ago.
Manpower said the result of Taiwan’s net employment outlook for next quarter was positive for a sixth straight quarter and represented the most promising hiring environment since the second quarter of 2005, when Taiwan began participating in the global poll for hiring prospects.
After seasonal adjustment, the nation’s net employment score stands at 40 percent for the coming quarter, which also makes Taiwan the third-highest in the world, following China’s 51 percent and India’s 42 percent, the report said.
Globally, Manpower said employers in 28 of 36 economies expected positive hiring activity in the third quarter, five predicted personnel numbers would decline and three expect payrolls to stay unchanged. Hiring expectations in emerging markets — China, Taiwan, India and Brazil — continue to outpace the rest of the world, the agency noted.
“Historically, the fourth quarter is not the season for job transition. However, the survey results indicate that employers’ hiring expectations are vigorous, especially for the manufacturing sector, which may be related to the younger generations’ reluctance to pursue technician assignments, suggesting the shortages will worsen,” Terence Liu (劉玿廷), general manager of Manpower Services (Taiwan) Co, said in an e-mailed statement.
“For example, some employment services centers in Taiwan have tripled the recruitment target of technicians recently and still find it increasingly difficult to fill their client companies’ demand,” Liu said.
In terms of industry sectors, the quarterly report found Taiwanese employers in the manufacturing sector the most optimistic, with a net employment outlook figure of 47 percent.
That was followed by the service sector (44 percent) and the finance, insurance and real estate sectors (41 percent). In contrast, employers in the mining and construction sectors would have the weakest staffing demand, with employers reporting a net outlook figure of 36 percent.
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