Hiring activity in Taiwan should gain force next quarter, as companies in tech, finance, real estate and other sectors intend to raise headcounts to meet demand as business picks up and to address personnel shortages, a survey by human resource advisory firm ManpowerGroup showed yesterday.
The survey found that 39 percent of the 630 local firms polled plan to add workers during the October-to-December period, 21 percent intend to reduce their workforce and 36 percent would stay put.
The employment outlook is the brightest in the financial and real-estate sectors, as local financial firms are experiencing a retirement surge and a high turnover rate among young bank staffers, said Lai Yi-wen (賴怡文), managing partner of the professional talent business at ManpowerGroup.
Photo: CNA
State-run lenders alone have announced more than 1,000 new job openings in wealth management, customer service, financial technology, information technology, cybersecurity, general finance, and environmental, social and governance (ESG), the survey showed.
At the same time, real-estate companies are looking for talent in property transactions, big data analysis, software development and other skills in the hope of drawing new graduates to the sector, ManpowerGroup said.
They are expanding staff to take advantage of a housing boom induced by the government’s introduction of favorable lending terms for first-home buyers, it said.
Ranking second in hiring intention is the energy and utilities sector, as state-run enterprises embark on large-scale recruitments to support stable operations and future development needs, it said.
The active recruitment would reverse previous efforts to encourage voluntary retirement and downsizing measures to save on costs and boost competitiveness, Lai said.
The policy shift stems from potential power shortages and rising demand from infrastructure projects and development of renewable energy sources and energy storage technologies, Lai said.
Hiring interest is also high at the information technology sector, as US tech giants pour money into the development of cloud services and artificial intelligence (AI) applications, Lai said, adding that local supply-chain firms have been expanding their production capacity and workforce.
Many well-known electronics suppliers would create thousands of job opportunities, especially for research and development engineers in AI-related fields, she said.
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