Demand for workers would increase in Taiwan in the second quarter because of a booming electronics industry, the Ministry of Labor said in a statement on Tuesday.
Citing a survey conducted from Jan. 11 to 29, the ministry said that it anticipates an increase in net hiring — planned hires minus expected departures — of 50,000 people in the April-to-June period from this quarter.
The predicted increase would be the highest for the second quarter since 2012, when net hiring demand grew by about 55,000 people, the ministry said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Department of Statistics head Mei Chia-yuan (梅家瑗) said in the statement that Taiwanese exporters, in particular in the electronics sector, have received a boost from rising global demand for emerging technologies, such as 5G applications, automotive electronics and devices related to the booming stay-at-home economy.
In addition, old economy industries have also started to recover from slowdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic and are looking to hire, Mei said.
As a result, the expected increase in net hiring demand in the manufacturing sector in the second quarter topped that of other sectors at 27,000 people, including 5,000 in the electronic components sector, 3,000 in metal businesses and 2,000 in the machinery sector, the ministry said.
Net hiring demand is also expected to increase in the retail-wholesale and the hospitality-food and beverage sectors by 6,000 and 3,000 respectively, the ministry said.
EXPANSIONS
The survey found that 69.2 percent of respondents said they would need a larger workforce to expand or diversify their operations.
Twelve percent said that they have suffered long-term labor shortages, while 11.8 percent said that they would hire to fill vacancies resulting from departures, the survey showed.
The survey collected 3,040 valid questionnaires from employers with workforces of 30 people or more.
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