The number of workers hired in the manufacturing and service sectors in February edged down 0.12 percent, or by 9,000 people, as firms shed headcount to cope with a slow business season, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The overall number of employees stood at 8.16 million, with hotels and restaurants cutting 4,000 staff members, and manufacturers letting go 3,000, DGBAS said.
Compared with a year earlier, the pool grew by 0.25 percent, or an addition of 21,000 workers, as many employers emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
Photo: CNA
It is unclear if the decline in workers had to do with seasonal or economic factors, DGBAS Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said, adding that manufacturers tended to hire fewer workers in February and increased their staff in the following month.
Employee gains last month could have ranged from 1,000 to 7,000, although conclusions cannot be reached until official data is released, Chen said.
Overtime hours, another gauge of industry performance, fell by 0.4 hours per day in February from a year earlier, shrinking eight months in a row, DGBAS data showed.
The manufacturing sector is the backbone of Taiwan’s export-oriented economy, with the nation home to the world’s largest suppliers of electronics used in smartphones, notebook computers, wearables, televisions and vehicles.
Employers usually cut overtime hours before exploring other measures to control personnel costs during downturns, Chen said.
The accession rate, which measures the number of new workers added to payrolls, rose 0.08 percentage points year-on-year to 2.15 percent, DGBAS said.
The dropout rate, which reflects the number of workers who exit the job market, declined 0.09 percentage points to 2.27 percent, it added.
Average monthly take-home pay in February grew 2.51 percent year-on-year to NT$45,044, but dropped 0.71 percent from January, it said.
Total monthly wages — including performance-based commissions, bonuses and overtime compensation — advanced by 7.14 percent to NT$52,705, as the tourism sector emerged from COVID-19 restrictions, it said.
In the first two months, average take-home pay gained 2.39 percent to NT$45,206, but contracted 0.34 percent after factoring in higher inflation, Chen said.
Taiwanese employees on average received NT$75,688, or 1.63 months of salary, for year-end bonuses this year, led by 3.39 months at financial and insurance companies and 2.12 months at property-related companies, DGBAS 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