2019 Q3

Job Market Update台灣就業趨勢報告

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Total Population

23.58MConsumer Price Index

（YoY）

0.66%Avg. Monthly Salary

(NTD)

41,674# of Employed Individuals

(Thousand)

11,480

April Unemployment Rate Compare to March

3.67% 0.01

Taiwan's employed population was 11.48 million and unemployment rate was 3.67% in April 2019, a slight increase of 0.03% from the previous quarter, remaining roughly the same. The average monthly salary was NT$41,674 in the quarter, up about NT$700 compared with the previous quarter or an annual growth rate of 2.25%. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.66% compared to the same month last year. Salaries and price levels have remained stable.

Taiwanese enterprises and talent not only contribute to local markets, but also play a role in international trade. The every move and future considerations of business owners, talent seeking jobs, and employees must be considered on an international scale.

The US-China trade war continues to be main factor influencing the hardware industry. Taiwanese enter-prises have lower intention to invest in China, and the demand on hardware talent in China has become relatively conservative. Taiwanese enterprises with factories in China may break down their production line and relocate the assembly process offshore to Southeast Asia to diversify risk. The US ban on Huawei will impact its entire supply chain and cause hardware manufacturing to decline, which will also lead to a decline in demand on talent.

Due to the international political situation, some Taiwanese enterprises are returning to Taiwan, and the government may use investment incentives to attract them to return, such as lowering the difficulty of acquiring land, lowering investment risk, and ensuring labor supply.

There is a shortage of software engineers in the software industry and emerging technology fields. Taiwanese enterprises are competing with the world for talent, and the greatest challenge is retaining talent through salary, work environment, and future development potential.

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＊Remark：The working population of each country specified in this report refers to the employed population ＊Source: 行政院主計處-https://www.dgbas.gov.tw/

Job Market Update│2019 Q3

Other Regions

Hsinchu's economy remains in a slump as it mainly consists of the semicon-ductor industry. Due to the lack of breakthrough in semiconductor tech-nologies, the technology industry has shifted its focus to artificial intelli-gence, which has led to a decline in purchase orders from customers. As a result, the industry's demand on talent has remained the same or declined.

The electric vehicle industry has released a large number of job openings in Taoyuan, but most start out as contract workers and may not be appealing in the job market. Furthermore, seven industrial parks are expected to be completed in Taoyuan at the end of this year, and are expected to attract many electronics OEMs to enter the parks, which will increase the demand on talent.

Taoyuan, Hsinchu, and Miaoli

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E-Commerce will continue to shine the spotlight on Taiwan's consumer industry. Under the continuous growth of online sales, brick-and-mortar stores are also transitioning online, and this has driven an increase in demand on e-commerce managers and distribution channel managers.

However, instead of searching for talent with previous e-commerce experience, brick and mortar stores prefer new generation talent familiar with new technologies to lead their transition to online sales. Talent that have knowledge of the new e-commerce industry, understand how to use new methods to carry out projects, and have potential to rapidly learn will gain employment and development opportunities.

E-Commerce has also driven the development of the logistics industry, and logistics service providers are taking customer service more seriously, focusing on building a logistics and delivery brand to leave an impression and gain the favor of end consumers. In the medical industry, the home care industry's demand on talent, such as equipment and instrument development talent, has increased along with Taiwan's aging society. Demand on financial talent this year was relatively low compared to last year.

The food and beverage and fashion service industries are developing towards data analysis and becoming customer-oriented, emphasizing personalized consumption experience. Many new brands from Japan, Thailand, and the US have appeared this quarter, which has made it hard to maintain market share in such severe competition, creating a demassified market. Even though the industry continues to thrive, it lack high level management, so employees only view such enterprises as short-term work. Enterprises are recommended to jointly promote the industry with the government and adjust salaries to improve the current situation.

Looking towards the third quarter, college graduates will soon be entering the market, and many enter-prises plan to recruit the young talent through management associate positions.

Job Market Update│2019 Q3

Some Taiwanese enterprises have returned to establish factories in Taiwan due to the impact of the US-China trade war. This will increase demand on basic-level operators. Meanwhile, the machine tool market has seen a decline in revenue and lower demand on talent. Furthermore, banks in central Taiwan have lowered their sales goals due to lower financial product sales. This situation is expected to continue into the next quarter.

The wind power construction project in Taichung will continue to be carried out, and major international companies are beginning to recruit talent, creating demand on local talent. The companies are searching for engineering talent with foreign language ability to par-ticipate in the development projects.

Regulations for the management of labor dispatch were included in the Labor Standards Act, such as prohibiting the signing of fixed term contracts with dispatched workers, and recent discussions on prohib-iting enterprises from registering their employees at labor dispatch companies. This has affected the labor dispatch market and only com-panies with good recruitment and financial capabilities will survive the changes.

Central Taiwan

Observing Taoyuan, Hsinchu, and Miaoli as a whole, the service industry such as department stores and shopping malls still have high demand on talent, most job openings are for part-time workers and management associates. For college students who are about to graduate, being part of a generation that boldly expresses itself will be plus for them when seeking employment in the service industry.

This region currently faces a slight dilemma between the supply and demand ends. Quite a few foreign enterprises hope to bring talent on as contract workers, and then make them regular employees if they fit the corporate culture and environment. Yet, many people will not accept the opportunity if it comes with slight uncertainty, and this has made talent matching difficult. Due to the international work environment and frequent overseas business trips of the technology industry, talent in this region who lack foreign language skills may miss out on excellent job opportunities.

Looking towards the third quarter, demand of technology industries, such as the semiconductor industry, is expected to remain the same, and no significant changes are expected. Industrial parks in Taoyuan will soon begin the recruitment stage, and whether or not college graduates and the younger generation will be willing to enter the electronics OEM indus-try may become the greatest challenge in recruitment.

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Job Market Update│2019 Q3

Southern Taiwan continues to be affected by the US-China trade war as some Taiwanese enterprises are gradually relocating their produc-tion lines back to Taiwan. Taiwan may become a relay point as the enterprises further move their factories to Southeast Asia or Central and Southern America, where labor is cheaper. Demand on industrial land has increased in Kaohsiung. For example, the establishment of Qiaotou Science Park will increase demand on talent in the area in the short-term, while long-term developments will still be affected by political factors.

As manufacturing and industries continue to go through transforma-tion, software engineer openings are steadily increasing, and short-term projects are becoming growingly popular among engi-neers. This has led to the growingly rapid turnover of software engi-neers. The service industry's demand on manpower has also shown steady growth along with the recovery of the tourism industry, such as hotel and retail industries.

Due to the possibility of production lines that were moved back to Taiwan being further moved to other countries, workers are recom-mended to develop an array of skills, flexible work methods, and for-eign language ability to help their company further develop overseas.

The current dilemma of labor supply and demand in the area is the large number of options workers have, resulting in many enterprises unsuccessfully finding workers to fill in their job openings. This may be due to traditional enterprises giving talent the impression of being conservative, the lack of a corporate brand and culture, or the lack of innovation training and development courses. Traditional employers are recommended to build their own corporate brand to help attract talent.

Southern Taiwan

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Basic level positions have become growingly unpopular in the job market, so manufacturers must consider automation to lower their demand on manpower and increase production. Technical talent should keep an open mind and try out different fields to adapt to the international, interdisci-plinary work environments of the future.

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