Taiwan’s semiconductor industry in the fourth quarter of last year faced its most serious talent shortage in seven years, as it raced to increase production to meet soaring demand, a survey released last week by 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) found.
The survey showed that in the October-to-December period, the semiconductor industry faced a shortage of about 34,000 people per month, translating into 3.7 offers per jobseeker in December, compared with 2.6 offers in December 2020 and 2.3 offers in December 2019.
Across all sectors of the job market, there were on average 1.7 offers per applicant in December, up from 1.3 offers per applicant in December 2020 and 1.1 offers per applicant in December 2019, highlighting the depth of the shortage in the semiconductor industry.
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Although several top schools, such as National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University and National Cheng Kung University, have set up semiconductor institutes, their talent development efforts remain unable to satisfy the market, the job bank said.
Many factors have converged to exacerbate the problem, including skyrocketing demand for chips. A surge in remote working and distance learning since the emergence of COVID-19 has triggered robust demand for electronic devices, while emerging technologies, such as electric vehicles, 5G applications and artificial intelligence, have sparked a race for the chips of the future.
This has led semiconductor firms that are overseas to seek talent from Taiwan, making the overall hiring environment more challenging for Taiwanese companies, Nikkei Asia reported on Saturday.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV is planning to hire 4,000 people worldwide this year, including 1,000 from Taiwan, it said.
Several US-based companies, including DRAM maker Micron Technology Inc, smartphone chip designer Qualcomm Inc and equipment supplier Applied Materials Inc, are also hiring from Taiwan, it said.
In Taiwan, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), and chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) are hoping to hire more than 10,000 people this year, while United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), a smaller Taiwanese contract chipmaker, is planning to hire 1,500, the report said.
Citing data compiled by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院), the report said that the number of people employed by the local semiconductor industry had risen to more than 290,000 as of the end of last year, from 225,000 at the end of 2019.
HR consultancy Intelligent Manpower Corp (精英人力資源) said that annual wages for graduate students from top schools’ semiconductor departments could reach NT$1.6 million to NT$2 million (US$57,554 to US$71,762), up about one-third since before the COVID-19 pandemic, Nikkei Asia reported.
The sector is now recruiting people with no engineering background, the job bank said.
For example, TSMC seeks to hire analysts with doctorates in political science or international relations, a move reflecting the company’s growing interest in geopolitics as it expands globally.
In related news, output for the whole of last year in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry totaled NT$4.08 trillion, up 26.7 percent from a year earlier, ITRI reported on Thursday.
The institute forecast that output this year is likely to increase 17.7 percent to NT$4.8 trillion, amid robust global demand for semiconductors.
Output in the IC design sector reached a record NT$1.21 trillion, up 42.4 percent from a year earlier, data from ITRI’s Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center showed.
Output in the IC manufacturing sector reached NT$2.22 trillion, up 22.4 percent from a year earlier, ahead of ouput in the IC packaging sector, which increased 15.3 percent to NT$435.4 billion, and output in the IC testing sector, which increased 18.4 percent to NT$203 billion.
The institute forecast that the global semiconductor industry this year would continue to grow, with output expected to increase 8.8 percent thanks to continued robust demand for 5G devices and business laptops.
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