Taipei, June 17 (CNA) Taiwan's hiring outlook for the third quarter remains unchanged from a quarter earlier, with demand for people expected to be strongest in the financial and real estate sectors, according to U.S.-based human resources firm ManpowerGroup.
Citing a survey, Taiwan's net hiring outlook stood at 24 percent for the July-September period, unchanged from the previous quarter, but up 5 percentage points from a year earlier, ManpowerGroup said.
Taiwan's employment outlook remained the strongest in the Asia Pacific region, tied with Japan but ahead of Hong Kong (15 percent), India (14 percent) and New Zealand (13 percent), the advisory firm said.
The net hiring outlook, which reflects hiring confidence among employers, is calculated after seasonal adjustments by subtracting the percentage of employers in the survey anticipating a decline in total employment from the percentage expecting to see an increase.
The survey found that 30 percent of the 1,008 employers in Taiwan who responded to the poll said they planned to expand their workforce, 4 percent said they wanted to cut staff, and 64 percent said their workforce is expected to remain the same.
After seasonal adjustments, the net hiring outlook of Taiwan stood at 24 percent for the third quarter. Of the six broad industries surveyed, the only one to see a drop in its hiring outlook in the third quarter was the construction/engineering sector.
Of the other five, the financial/insurance/real estate sector posting the highest net hiring outlook at 32 percent, up 3 percentage points from a year earlier, ManpowerGroup said.
ManpowerGroup said the strong demand from the sector reflected an increase in planned hiring in the financial technology (FinTech) area, as the sector invests more resources to upgrade its technology in a fast changing market.
Financial institutions are keen to expand their workforces in the call center, information technology, and asset management areas, the advisory firm said.
The local retail/wholesale sector had the second highest net hiring outlook of the six broad industries at 28 percent, up 4 percentage points from a year earlier as domestic demand recovers, ManpowerGroup said.
The net hiring outlook of the service sector stood at 25 percent, the third highest in the third quarter, ahead of the manufacturing sector (24 percent), the warehousing/communications sector (18 percent) and the construction/engineering sector (13 percent).
The leisure/hospitality/tourism sector was added to the third quarter survey and its net hiring outlook stood at 21 percent.
In the Asia Pacific region, China and Singapore posted the weakest employment outlook with a net hiring outlook of 4 percent, ManpowerGroup said, adding that it was the fifth consecutive quarter for China to record the lowest hiring outlook in the region.
