Online recruitment agency 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) had 28.4 percent more positions on offer this month than it did in the same month last year, with hiring demand strongest in the manufacturing sector, indicating that the nation’s job market might grow resiliently next year, it announced in a statement on Thursday.
The employment agency attributed its rosy outlook to the mild growth it expects the economy to experience next year, fueling hiring demand among local businesses.
The online recruiter said it received 579,000 notices for positions from local companies last month — the second-highest amount since September’s 592,000 openings.
“Local employers have shown stronger-than-expected demand for new employees in the last quarter of the year, which is a traditionally weak season for hiring. This indicates that hiring demand remains robust,” the statement said.
Expecting economic growth to stay steady at about 3.5 percent next year, 104 Job Bank said a growing number of local firms are optimistic about hiring next year, which might indicate that these companies are to ramp up recruitment.
Based on the online job agency’s latest survey, hiring demand in the electronics manufacturing industry has increased by 52 percent compared with the same period last year — the highest growth among the four major industries — followed by the traditional manufacturing sector’s 42 percent annual increase.
Meanwhile, major Taiwanese airlines have launched recruitment drives for the coming year.
The nation’s largest airline, China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), held a preliminary year-end examination for its flight attendant candidates at its headquarters in Taoyuan on Saturday.
Under its plan to gradually phase 10 new Boeing 777s into service in the coming years, CAL is to hire as many as 300 flight attendants out of nearly 4,000 candidates by the end of January.
TransAsia Airways Corp (TNA, 復興航空), which mainly focuses on the regional passenger business, also held its preliminary recruitment test for flight attendants, aiming to hire 30 new employees among the nearly 1,000 applicants who vied for the jobs on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, EzTravel Co Ltd (易遊網), one of the nation’s leading online tour service providers, said that the tourism sector’s rapid growth over the past few years has seen the industry exhibiting strong demand for new hires, as has the company itself.
EzTravel held a recruitment exhibition yesterday, primarily seeking to hire more than 100 management associates with IT expertise.
Despite strong hiring demand, the acceptance rate could be lower than 3 percent, as more than 3,000 jobseekers have filed applications since the company unveiled its recruitment plan in the middle of last month.
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