MOST TAIWAN EMPLOYERS HIRING NEW WORKERS IN 4TH QUARTER

About 70 percent of employers in Taiwan intend to recruit new workers in the fourth quarter of the year as the domestic economy seems to be stabilizing amid the country's effective efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the online job bank 1111. 

Citing a survey, the job bank said that although the fourth quarter is usually a slow season in the job market, a higher percentage of employers plan to hire in the fourth quarter than they did in the peak second and third quarters, when the ratio was 66 percent and 67 percent, respectively.

Henry Ho, head of the job bank's media center, said local employment was affected by the pandemic in the second and third quarters, and hiring was postponed to the fourth quarter. In September, transactions of homes, shops, offices and factories in Taiwan rose more than 36 percent from a year earlier to 243,000 units, the job bank said. The poll also showed that employers in the service sector, in particular restaurant operators, are also keen to recruit new workers, as domestic consumption has been increasing since the government issued NT$50 billion (US$1.72 billion) in stimulus vouchers to citizens in July to help alleviate the economic impact of the pandemic. 

In Taiwan, many employees prefer not to change jobs in the fourth quarter of the year, before year-end bonuses are paid, while recruitment usually spikes in the second and third quarters as first-time jobseekers jump into the market, the job bank said. According to the survey, among the 70 percent employers who are planning to hire in the fourth quarter, those in the construction and property industry seem most eager, as the housing market has been showing signs of improving, Yang Shu-ching and Frances Huang reported for Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA).