First-time jobseekers cut salary expectations: poll

‘POSING A THREAT’:Recent surveys have found that a monthly pay of NT$30,000 has become the ceiling for starting wages, yes123 spokesman Yang Tsung-pin said

Staff writer, with CNA

Salary expectations of first-time jobseekers who recently graduated from university have fallen from a year earlier, according to a survey by the online job bank yes123.

Citing the survey, yes123 said that recent graduates anticipate an average starting salary of NT$31,284, down NT$254, or 0.8 percent from a similar survey conducted a year earlier.

Over the past three years, the job bank’s surveys have shown that first-time jobseekers do not expect a significant increase in their starting salary at a time when the job market in Taiwan has suffered from long-term wage stagnation.

Yes123 spokesman Yang Tsung-pin (楊宗斌) said that recent surveys found that NT$30,000 has become the ceiling for starting wages.

Yang said that many recent graduates do not dare to ask employers for higher salaries.

Microbio Co chairman Lu Kung-ming said that the average starting salary for recent graduates in Taiwan has changed little over the past 35 years, which he said poses a threat to the nation’s development.

Lu said he started working in 1979 with a salary of NT$20,000 a month and later received a raise which increased his salary to NT$30,000 a month.

Wages in Taiwan have clearly stagnated, he said.

According to the poll, employers are willing to offer an average starting salary of NT$26,818 to recent graduates, up 1.9 percent from a similar survey a year earlier.

The job bank said that employers are willing to offer an average salary of NT$28,600 for first-time jobseekers with a post-graduate degree, up 1.2 percent from a year earlier.

The poll found that 96.2 percent of recent graduates want to enter the job market immediately after graduation, up from 95.2 percent found in a similar survey conducted a year earlier. Only 3.8 percent said they intended to pursue a higher degree.

The job bank said that 78.6 percent of those who were looking for work immediately after graduation hoped to find employment at a local private company, while 53.4 percent said that they want to land a job at a foreign company operating in Taiwan.

The survey found that 38.1 percent of respondents were interested in a position at a state-owned enterprise and 29.7 percent wanted to become civil servants, while 19.7 percent planned to establish their own businesses.

The technology sector was the No. 1 choice among first-time jobseekers (42.6 percent), followed by the hospitality and travel sector (34.8 percent), and the wholesale and retail sector (30.9 percent).

The survey, conducted between Feb. 16 and Wednesday last week, collected 1,360 valid samples and has a confidence level of 95 percent, with a margin of error of 2.66 percentage points.

The survey also collected 928 valid samples from employers, with a margin of error of 3.22 percentage points.