Many employers see hiring returning to normal in 6 months: survey

With COVID-19 coming under control in Taiwan, roughly two of every five employers in Taiwan believe their hiring will return to normal within six months, according to a survey by human resources advisory firm ManpowerGroup.

The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey also found that hiring growth in the manufacturing, engineering/construction, and transportation/logistics sectors will be the strongest.

The ManpowerGroup survey found that 41 percent of the 1,030 responding employers said their hiring will return to normal in six months, and 16 percent expect hiring to return to normal in nine to 12 months.

Another 9 percent of them expected it would take longer for hiring to stabilize while the remaining 34 percent said the situation remained hard to predict, according to the survey.

Joan Yeh (???), general manager of the advisory firm, said business activity is expected to pick up as Taiwan eases COVID-19 restrictions on the movement of people that had been in place.

Yeh said the local manufacturing sector, which has not been badly hurt by the pandemic because of sustained strength in exports, is particularly expected to grow and create more job openings.

Meanwhile, the survey found Taiwan’s net hiring outlook index for the October-December period was 21 percent, down 2 percentage points from a quarter earlier but up 2 percentage points from a year earlier.

The company said 24 percent of respondents expected to increase their workforces in the fourth quarter while 4 percent anticipated a decrease, and about 69 percent expected the size of their workforces to remain the same.

After seasonal adjustments, the 20 percent difference became 21 percent, trailing India (44 percentage points) among the eseven Asia-Pacific markets, according to ManpowerGroup.

Singapore was at the bottom with a net hiring outlook of 1 percent for the fourth quarter.

The manufacturing sector had the highest net hiring outlook of 30 percent for the fourth quarter because of continued strong demand for tech gadgets and new investment by tech companies, especially semiconductor suppliers.

The engineering/construction sector came in second with a net hiring outlook of 26 percent, ahead of the logistics/warehousing and communications sector (24 percent), and the service sector (22 percent).

Following behind were the financial/insurance and real estate sector (20 percent), the retail/wholesale sector (16 percent), and the leisure/food and beverage sector (7 percent), according to the survey.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel