More than 44 percent of people expect a salary increase next year due to a booming economy, a Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) survey showed on Monday.
However, 49.5 percent of respondents said they thought their salary would remain flat, while 6.2 percent expected a wage cut, the survey showed.
Of the respondents, 54.2 percent said they expected a year-end bonus of one to three months of their salary, 38.7 percent expected one month of salary and 7.1 percent expected more than three months of salary, it showed.
Cathay Financial attributed the upbeat outlook regarding raises and bonuses to the nation’s solid economy and an increase in corporate earnings this year.
However, the fast spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 weighed on the outlook regarding the economy and the willingness of respondents to make big-ticket purchases, the survey found.
Thirty-seven percent of respondents said that they expected the nation’s economy to grow further over the next six months, lower than 46 percent a month earlier, while 34 percent said they planned to increase big-ticket purchases, down from 41 percent a month earlier, the survey showed.
Given that Omicron has caused volatility in global stock markets, fewer respondents were upbeat about local equities than a month earlier, while more than half forecast that consumer prices would increase by more than 2 percent next year, the survey said.
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the