Starting salaries up from last year

Staff writer, with CNA

Sun, Jun 14, 2015 - Page 3

The average starting salary offered to newcomers to the job market grew this year by about 2 percent from last year when unemployment was on the decline, according to a job bank survey.

The survey by 1111 Job Bank, one of Taiwan’s top human resources agencies, found that employers offered NT$26,493 on average in starting monthly wages to college graduates who were first-time jobseekers, up NT$524 or 2.02 percent from the same time last year.

The figure is the highest since the firm launched the annual survey in 2007.

The survey showed that the average starting salary for technical college graduates is NT$25,868, up 5.46 percent from last year, the figure for four-year university graduates rose 2.48 percent year-on-year to NT$26,869 and the starting wage for those who held a master’s degree was NT$28,596, up 0.28 percent year-on-year.

Vice president of 1111 Job Bank Daniel Lee (李大華) said that the average starting salary for first-time jobseekers still lagged behind the overall increase in the job market, indicating room for growth.

Lee said the results show a trend with new entrants to the job market with higher degrees failing to get a significant salary increase over new hires with lesser degrees, while the gap between starting salaries for employees with technical college, university and master’s degrees has narrowed.

The job bank said that the information technology sector offered the highest starting salaries, ahead of medical, agricultural and other sectors.

The survey was conducted between June 2 and Tuesday last week; it collected 431 valid replies.