People are less optimistic about receiving pay raises next year, a survey released yesterday by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) showed.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they expected their salaries to remain unchanged next year, while a similar Cathay Financial survey conducted last year showed that 49.5 percent of respondents expected no changes in their salaries this year.
This year’s survey showed that 33 percent of 19,052 respondents said they anticipated pay raises next year, lower than the 44 percent found in the previous survey.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, 8.8 percent said they expected wage cuts next year, up from 6.2 percent in the previous survey, Cathay Financial said, adding that 55 percent expected to receive one to three months’ salary as a year-end bonus.
The company attributed the downbeat sentiment to a weaker outlook for economic growth and employment next year, with the survey showing that 37 percent of respondents expected Taiwan’s labor market to worsen in the next six months, compared with 35.5 percent who predicted no changes in the market and 19 percent who expect the labor market to improve.
Forty percent said they expected the economy to deteriorate in the next six months, while 32 percent expect the economy to improve, Cathay Financial said.
Most respondents forecast GDP growth of 2.78 percent for next year, it added.
Nevertheless, confidence in the market appears to have improved.
The survey showed that 34 percent said they expected local stocks to rise over the next six months, higher than the 25 percent in another survey last month, while 25 percent said that they would reallocate their assets to add more shares to their investment portfolios, up from 20.6 percent a month earlier, Cathay Financial said.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS