The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) last week released the latest job vacancy data in Taiwan, which highlighted how many job openings firms had yet to be filled at the end of August last year. The data also revealed how the vacant positions were closely related to the business climate that industrial and services sectors faced at the time.
The DGBAS collects data on job vacancies at the end of February, May, August and November every year. The number of job vacancies includes recruits for expanding operations and additional production lines as well as for openings related to quitting, layoffs and retirement. However, vacant positions due to a recruitment freeze, internal recruitment and expatriate vacancies are excluded.
At the end of August last year, there were 248,036 job openings in the nation’s 17 major industries — such as manufacturing, information technology, electricity and gas supply, construction, wholesale and retail trade, transportation, accommodation and food services, financial and insurance services, real-estate, and support services. The number was the highest for the same period in three years, up 6,208 from the end of May and an increase of 3,683 from a year earlier, DGBAS data showed.
The manufacturing industry had the most job vacancies at 87,456, up 12,117 from a year earlier, due to rising labor demand related to electronic components, information technology products and emerging applications, the agency said.
Meanwhile, the wholesale and retail trade sector saw vacancies drop by 2,179 year-on-year to 39,684, the construction industry posted 4,779 fewer job openings at 15,345, and vacancies in accommodation and food services declined by 2,721 to 20,741, it added.
In terms of the job vacancy rate, which refers to the number of job openings as a percentage of employment plus job openings over a specific period, the DGBAS reported an overall job vacancy rate of 2.84 percent at the end of August, which was also the highest for the same period in three years, with the electricity and gas supply industry topping others at a rate of 4.72 percent, followed by the computer, electronics and optical products industry at 4.1 percent, and accommodation and food services at 3.7 percent.
The vacancy rate in the real-estate industry was 2.92 percent, a decrease of 0.65 percentage points from the same period last year and reaching a new low for the past 18 years, which reflected a cooling housing market due to the central bank’s selective credit control measures and resulted in a contraction in personnel demand.
As the central bank adopted a new wave of selective credit controls in September last year, how much impact its move would have on the industry’s workforce demand deserves further attention.
Observing the job vacancy rate regularly is important, because the data suggest the situation of labor demand, workforce management and the attractiveness of the job opportunities. If the rate stays high for long, it means that firms would need to find new ways to expand the workforce through attracting talent from unconventional pools, recruiting workers from abroad, offering more flexible work, encouraging people to work beyond standard retirement ages, and adopting automation or other practices to unlock productivity. In contrast, if the rate continues to remain low, it could imply that substantial market demand exists for the advertised job openings.
Overall, job vacancy rates in different industries vary and are tied to their seasonal business demand. Because the cost of vacancies is dependent on a range of factors, there is no universal formula for calculating it. However, it is worth mentioning that for firms, filling vacant positions is frequently cheaper than paying overtime, and is more conducive to enhancing performance and productivity, and maintaining customer satisfaction.
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