Workers in tourism-related sectors are looking to switch jobs, with 26,000 having filed applications, an increase of 44 percent from 2019, 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday.
The number of job applications made online this month increased to 706,000, rising above the 700,000 mark for the second consecutive month — the second-highest figure over the past five years, 104 Job Bank said.
The increase came as hiring activity also picked up momentum on the back of a stable economic recovery one year after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
Employees at airline companies, travel agencies and recreation facilities have sought to change jobs, as strict border controls around the world are likely to continue for a while, it added.
Job opportunities at airlines last year fell 70 percent, followed by movie theaters at 58 percent, travel bus companies at 54 percent, tour companies at 46 percent and textile makers at 37 percent, the online job bank said.
The manufacturing sector has the greatest number of vacant positions at 142,000, up 2.9 percent from 2019, 104 Job Bank said, adding that most job offers are from manufacturers of electronics, software and semiconductors.
Hotels and restaurants are seeking to hire 121,000 employees — a 7.2 percent increase — to meet growing business needs ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, it said.
Wholesale and retail operators are seeking to hire 98,000 workers, while non-tech manufacturers are seeking 97,000, it said.
Contractors and real-estate companies are seeking to increase their payrolls by 55,000 workers, up 49.3 percent from 2019, it said.
The local property market is booming, driven by Taiwanese companies returning home from China, excessive liquidity and low interest rates, it added.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day