Hiring outlook in financial/real estate sector strongest in Q4: Poll

Taipei, Sept. 11 (CNA) Taiwan's financial/insurance/real estate sector showed the strongest hiring outlook among the major business sectors in the fourth quarter of this year, according to the latest survey by human resources advisory firm ManpowerGroup.

After seasonal adjustments, Taiwan's overall net hiring outlook index from October to December stood at 16 percent, down from 18 percent in the previous quarter and also down from 23 percent over the same period of last year, the survey found.

The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, which reflects hiring confidence among employers, calculates the net hiring index by subtracting the percentage of employers anticipating a decline in the size of their workforce from the percentage expecting an increase.

In the survey, 39 percent of the 630 employers polled in Taiwan said they expected to hire more people in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, 21 percent said they anticipated a decline in hiring and 36 percent said their hiring plans remained unchanged.

This translated to the fourth quarter net hiring outlook index at 18 percent before seasonal adjustments and 16 percent after seasonal adjustments, according to ManpowerGroup.

Among the nine business sectors in the survey, the financial/insurance/real estate sector showed the strongest hiring outlook in the fourth quarter with the net employment outlook index hitting 32 percent, sharply up from 8 percent in the third quarter.

Lai Yi-wen (賴怡文), an executive partner with ManpowerGroup Taiwan, said Tuesday in a statement that the significant increase in hiring outlook in the financial/insurance/real estate sector partly reflected a peak season for retirement and high turnover among young employers.

Lai said the sector was also eager to recruit professionals in various areas such as wealth management, financial technology, environment/social/ governance (ESG), information and cybersecurity.

The energy and utility sector came in second with the net hiring outlook index at 30 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with minus 64 percent in the third quarter, according to the survey.

Lai said the sharp spike in hiring outlook in the fourth quarter was because state-owned enterprises in the energy related business faced a manpower shortage and started to rebuild their talent pools.

In addition, with the government intensifying efforts in pushing for infrastructure work projects, and improving energy storage facilities, companies in the both public and private segments appeared keen to recruit in a bid to participate in the projects, Lai said.

The net hiring outlook of the information technology sector was the third highest in the fourth quarter at 25 percent, up from 18 percent in the third quarter, the poll found.

Lai said the increase came in a boom of the current artificial intelligence development which boosted demand for AI servers and AI PCs, prompting leading contract electronics makers to announce about 1,000 job openings.

Lai added with Taiwan boasting a strong semiconductor industry, several international IC suppliers have planned to open research and development centers to raise the demand for talent in the industry.

However, the net hiring outlook in the local health care and life science sector fell to the lowest level of 2 percent in the fourth quarter among the nine major sectors, down from 43 percent in the third quarter, according to ManpowerGroup.

The group said the decline showed the recent efforts by many hospitals to raise compensation to retain their employees and ease the impact resulting from a manpower shortage.

Of the seven economies in the ManpowerGroup survey from the Asia Pacific region, India had the highest net hiring outlook for the fourth quarter at 37 percent, ahead of Singapore (29 percent), China (27 percent), and Taiwan (16 percent), while Hong Kong was at the bottom at 8 percent.

Among the 42 economies in the survey worldwide, ManpowerGroup said a total of 40 reported an expected increase in hiring in the fourth quarter, and only 2 will cut hiring.