Taiwan's Net Employment Outlook Stands at 33% to Lead World in Q2, 2013

Despite lingering uncertainty, the global economy was still on the mend steadily in the second quarter of this year, sustaining the improvement of Taiwan's job market, as the island's net employment outlook stood at 30%, down 3 percentage points from a quarter ago but hitting the highest globally, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey by ManpowerGroup, a U.S.-based human resource consulting company.

The survey polls 1,031 Taiwanese employers, showing that 37% plan to recruit new workers and 4% to downsize workforce in the near future, while 58% intend to keep current payrolls intact, indicating Taiwan's net employment outlook of 33%, or 30% after seasonal adjustment, the strongest in the world.

A director from ManpowerGroup's Taiwan branch noted that although it remains to be seen if long-term global economic recovery continues, about three-fourths of global employers polled were optimistic about job prospects in the second quarter of this year, when 32 countries out of the 42 surveyed showed strong hiring willingness, while the remainder had weak demand for manpower.

The director continued that since Taiwan's export-driven economy hinges on the global economic situation, Taiwanese employers are expected to have increased staff in the second quarter when China and U.S.'s economic growth were increasingly stabilized. The positive hiring prospects are proven by ManpowerGroup's survey, which indicates that despite the island's overall declining employment outlook, 37% of Taiwanese employers polled in the second quarter will expand workforce, up 6 percentage points compared to the first quarter.

The growing hiring expectations in Taiwan resulted from not just increasing global economic stability, but also local employers' recovering confidence in brighter outlook in the short term after the government's solicitation of homebound investments to stimulate domestic economic growth, said the director.

Mixed Hiring Prospects

According to the survey, sectors in Taiwan showed different hiring expectations in the second quarter.

Manpower demand in the construction and mining sector is expected to surge in the months to come, as ManpowerGroup's survey shows that the sector had the strongest seasonally adjusted net employment outlook of 39% among others in the second quarter, mostly thanks to growing private constructions in Taiwan. The manpower outlook represented an increase of 3 percentage points compared to the first quarter.

However the transportation and utilities sector's seasonally adjusted employment outlook declined 7 percentage points quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), or 10 percentage points year-on-year (YoY). Manwpower Group's Taiwanese director explained that the drop was due to employers' short-term workforce adjustments, though the government has carried out transpiration and public constructions, including the free trade zones in major commercial ports and the Taoyuan International Airport. The director added that whether hiring intentions in the sector will improve in the coming quarters remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the services sector's seasonally adjusted employment outlook dived by 4 percentage points QoQ or 7 percentage points YoY to 32% in the second quarter, primarily because local consumer confidence has yet to recover despite increasingly stable economic situations.

But, ManpowerGroup indicated that the sector's overall hiring intentions are expected to improve in the short term, mostly due to growing Chinese tourist arrivals, which has driven local employers to recruit more staff. Besides, high-tech and financial service providers both appear to have stronger demand for employees for different reasons. The consultancy stated that the emergence of Internet social communities and online shopping sustain manpower demand of high-tech service providers, while the inauguration of RMB remittance businesses in Taiwan and a more bullish stock market have created more financial service jobs.

The wholesale and retail trade sector's manpower demand was the weakest among others in the second quarter, where the seasonally adjusted employment outlook dived by 8 percentage points QoQ or 9 percentage points YoY to 23%, partly because of seasonal factors, and partly because of a persistently slack domestic consumer market.

With easing debt crisis in EU and Taiwan's expanding financial exchanges with China and opening of RMB remittance businesses, the finance, insurance and real estate sector's employment outlook in the second quarter grew 3 percentage points QoQ but slid 2 percentage points YoY, shows ManpowerGroup's report.

The manufacturing sector's employment outlook remained at 30% in the quarter compared to the first quarter, yet representing one percentage point higher than a year ago, which, ManpowerGroup noted, resulted from local manufacturers and exporters' intentions to keel current workforces unchanged due to comparatively cautious views of business prospects amid uncertain economies in Europe and the U.S.

Manpower Demand Strong in Asia Pacific

It is safe to say that the global job market has been mainly sustained by strong manpower demand across the Asia Pacific so far this year, as ManpowerGroup reports that Taiwan, India and New Zealand posted a seasonally adjusted employment outlook of 30%, 27% and 21%, respectively, in the second quarter as the top three nations in area.

Meanwhile, a couple of nations in the area, including Singapore, China and New Zealand, saw local employment outlooks strengthen compared to those in the first quarter, with India's manpower demand remaining on an uptrend for two consecutive quarters, mostly fueled by sectors of transportation and utilities, services and wholesale and retail trade. In China, manpower demand in the services and wholesale and retail sectors led, according to ManpowerGroup.

Manpower concluded that Taiwan, Brazil, Turkey, India and Panama were world's top five nations with the strongest employment intentions in the second quarter. In sharp contrast to the Asia Pacific, hiring expectations in Europe were generally weak, as Italy, Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Switzerland were lower-ranked.

Manpower Employment Outlook Survey in Taiwan by Quarter
Quarter	Proportion of Respondents to Expand Workforce	Proportion of Respondents to Cut Workforce	Proportion of Respondents to Keep Workforce Intact	Proportion of Respondents without Ideas	Net Employment Outlook	Seasonally Adjusted Net Employ Outlook
Q2, 2013	37%	4%	58%	1%	33%	30%
Q1, 2013	31%	5%	60%	4%	26%	33%
Q4, 2012	38%	4%	58%	0%	34%	33%
Q3, 2012	44%	4%	50%	2%	40%	36%
Q2, 2012	40%	4%	52%	4%	36%	33%

Source: ManpowerGroup

Taiwan's Net Employment Outlook by Sectors in Q2, 2013
Sector	Net Employment Outlook (Seasonally Adjusted Net Employment Outlook)			QoQ Growth Rate	YoY Growth Rate
	2012 Q2	2013 Q1	2013 Q2
Finance, Insurance and Real Estate	35% (33%)	27% (28%)	33% (31%)	6% (3%)	-2% (-2%)
Manufacturing	29% (29%)	23% (30%)	30% (30%)	7% (0%)	1% (1%)
Construction and Mining	34% (36%)	29% (36%)	47% (39%)	18% (3%)	13% (3%)
Services	44% (39%)	30% (36%)	37% (32%)	7% (-4%)	-7% (-7%)
Transportation and Utilities	46% (40%)	24% (35%)	34% (28%)	10% (-7%)	-12% (-12%)
Wholesale and Retail Trade	37% (32%)	24% (31%)	28% (23%)	4% (-8%)	-9% (-9%)

Source: ManpowerGroup