Image taken from Pixabay

Taipei, Jan. 20 (CNA) The weeks following Lunar New Year are generally when people in Taiwan switch to new jobs or even change career paths, so it should come as no surprise that a large number of businesses have plans to recruit during the first quarter of this year.

According to the latest survey by TaiwanJobs, an online recruitment platform established by the Bureau of Employment, 60.60 percent of Taiwan's businesses surveyed have plans to recruit during the first quarter, while 24.62 percent are unsure and 14.78 percent do not have openings, so will not be recruiting.

TaiwanJobs published its results based on 1,109 completed, valid telephone questionnaires collected between Nov. 20 and Dec. 7, 2017. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.93 percentage points.

Among those respondents, 672 companies indicated they are looking to hire during the first three months of 2018.

A further breakdown found that most companies, at 47.32 percent, plan to hire one to 10 people, while 25.75 percent are looking for 11 to 30 new employees.

Businesses checked off the qualifications they were looking for in their ideal candidates, listing experience that fits the job requirement (85.21 percent), professional and technical skills (63.84 percent), and previous employment in the industry (43.91 percent) as top priorities on their wish list.

On the flip side, they regarded blowing off the interview or being late, widely criticizing one's previous employer and being unable to answer many of the interview questions as major reasons to disqualify candidates.

While TaiwanJobs did not conduct a similar survey for 2017, it did for 2016, and found in that year that 56.46 percent of the 1,068 businesses surveyed were actively recruiting in the first quarter of that year.

Compared with data obtained from other job bank surveys, the trend seems to indicate that as Taiwan's economy rebounds, more companies are hiring.

(By Yu Hsiao-han and Kuan-lin Liu)
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