Young workers in Taiwan earned an average monthly wage of NT$34,019 last year, but one-third of them were planning to switch jobs due to dissatisfaction with their pay and benefits, a Ministry of Labor survey showed on Wednesday.
Last year’s average wage for young workers rose 5.4 percent from 2020 and 24 percent from 2012, according to the survey of workers aged 15 to 29, excluding students who work part-time.
Another reason the respondents sought new jobs was “a lack of career prospects” at their current position, the survey found.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
The poll showed that 65.3 percent of respondents received two pay raises on their current jobs, primarily because of their “good performance” and “company policy.”
On average, the respondents changed jobs 2.1 times after joining the workforce at an age of 21.4, with 42.6 percent saying they had never changed jobs, while 3.2 percent had switched jobs five times.
The poll showed that 76.8 percent of respondents had no plans to work abroad, while the remaining 23.2 percent said they were interested in working in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe or Northeast Asia.
According to the poll, 23.5 percent of female respondents were interested in working abroad, slightly higher than 22.7 percent of male respondents.
The survey collected 4,029 valid samples in October and November last year.
According to a human resources study by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, there were 2.078 million young workers in Taiwan last year, down 116,000 from 10 years ago.
The agency attributed the fall to the nation’s declining birthrate and the spread of higher education.
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