The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday launched a mobile app to match jobseekers with farming jobs in a bid to alleviate the shortage of workers in the agriculture sector.
There are about 780,000 households working in the nation’s agriculture sector, among which 276,127 are defined as key producing units, but the industry is short 267,000 temporary workers and 15,000 regular workers, council data showed.
Farms in central and southern Taiwan are the hardest hit by the labor shortage, with those growing fruits and vegetables requiring more temporary workers during harvest season, the council said.
In central regions, such as Changhua and Yunlin counties, farmers have to vie with manufacturing plants for workers, COA Deputy Minister Lee Tui-chih (李退之) said.
While the council has helped find more than 1,800 workers for 1,500 farms this year, the app would facilitate job matching on a larger scale, Lee said.
Individual farmers, farmers’ associations and agricultural firms are encouraged to post full-time or part-time positions on the app, which lists specific positions for local and foreign students in different categories.
Working as a harvester pays NT$1,120 to NT$1,300 for eight hours per day, amounting to a monthly wage of NT$22,000 to NT$30,000, the app showed.
Foreign students can only work part-time for up to 20 hours per week during school semesters, according to the Employment Service Act (就業服務法), COA Department of Farmers’ Service Director-General Chu Chien-wei (朱建偉) said, adding that the restriction does not apply during summer and winter vacations.
In related news, a working holiday program for young people from Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand is still being negotiated, Chu said.
The program was supposed to launch a trial run this month.
The Ministry of the Interior has expressed concern about Vietnamese applicants, saying they are more likely to run away from their jobs, Chu said.
If the program could be launched, the app would also provide job offers especially for them, he added.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS