A spike in COVID-19 infections appear to have had little impact on the local job market, as the number of job offers reached 1.01 million this month, growing 13 percent from January, a survey by the online 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) showed yesterday.
The uptrend suggested vibrant hiring activity, as Taiwanese companies are upbeat about business prospects even though domestic cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 have exceeded 1,000 per day for the past few days, the online human resources firm said.
The development came after authorities in Taiwan focused on allowing economic activity to proceed with the least interruption, as more than 99 percent of Omicron patients display mild or no symptoms, the job bank said.
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Labor Affairs Bureau
The number of companies with job openings soared 30 percent from 40,000 in January to 52,000 this month, it said.
A breakdown by sector showed electronics, software and semiconductor companies with the most job vacancies at 197,000, followed by 165,000 at hospitality service providers and 147,000 at traditional manufacturers, it said.
By occupation, food and beverage attendants, machinery and equipment operators, as well as business salespeople were in high demand, with vacancies of 130,000, 112,000 and 87,000 respectively, it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker whose clients include Apple Inc and Intel Corp, has lowered its recruitment threshold from top-grade university graduates with master’s or doctorate degrees to candidates from all universities and colleges, it said.
To attract and retain talent, TSMC has reportedly offered a 10 percent pay raise for employees this year, IDC said, citing local Chinese-language media.
Similarly, chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) is hiring new engineers whose wages and perks could approach NT$2 million (US$68,423) a year, it said.
However, monthly wages for low-skilled equipment operators and product packagers fall somewhere between NT$31,000 and NT$35,000 at semiconductor manufacturing facilities, the job bank said.
Those willing to work graveyard shifts might earn an extra 30 to 50 percent, it said, but added that relatively few people are willing to work graveyard shifts for health and family reasons.
Hotels, restaurants and entertainment facilities have high turnover rates and are often in need of employees, it found.
Many hospitality facilities have not yet returned to business levels prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite a lingering boom in domestic tourism, it said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS