More than half of Taiwanese office workers want to change jobs or have recently found new employment amid rising discontent with low salaries or inadequate benefits, a survey by online Job Bank 1111 showed.
As many as 57 percent of office workers who responded to the survey said they wanted to or had just found a new job.
Of this group, about 31 percent said they were looking for better opportunities while remaining in their current position, 16 percent had quit their jobs and were actively searching for new work and about 10 percent had started a new job in the past month.
The top reasons workers gave their employers when handing in their resignations were “career or life plans” at 22 percent, followed by “health reasons or illness” (14 percent) and “found another job” (13 percent), the poll showed.
However, about half of office workers would not give their employers the real reasons behind their decision to leave, which included “low salaries and inadequate benefits” (15 percent), followed by “no opportunities for growth and development at current job” (13 percent) and “personal career planning” (13 percent).
About 30 percent of respondents who had experience changing jobs said they had had a smoother experience looking for jobs this year than in previous years, citing reasons such as an “increase in job openings,” “more interview opportunities” and “better salary offers.”
The job bank said that finding new work was one way for workers to increase their paycheck, with half of those who changed jobs in the past month experiencing a salary increase.
The survey also found that the average job seeker spends about 100 days looking for new employment.
On the side of the employers, most businesses said they had a more difficult time looking for talent.
About 71 of the businesses surveyed by the online bank said that new recruits were more difficult to find, while 69 percent said the time between an opening being posted and the position being filled had increased.
Henry Ho (何啟聖), a public relations director at Job Bank 1111, said that even though more jobs were available as the economy picks up, the time and effort that went into looking for a job had not necessarily decreased as job seekers were weighing more options.
Job Bank 1111 conducted the online survey from Nov. 3 to Wednesday last week and received 1,512 valid samples from workers and 729 from businesses. The poll had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.52 percent.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV