Talent shortage hits hard on Taiwan' science parks

Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park and Southern Taiwan Science Park have been recently hit hard by talent shortage, with the shortage at the Hsinchu park reaching up to 5,932 specialists while the scanty number at the other park topping 3,943.

Chairman Hu Sheng-cheng of the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development blamed prosperous business boom for the culprit of the serious talent shortage and the problem had persisted on for several years. He noted that the Executive Yuan, Taiwan's Cabinet, already worked out solutions to the difficulty and concrete measure is assist manufacturers train talents.

Taiwan government has much heeded hi-tech talent shortage problem and the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) under the Yuan has been conducting employment surveys every May. According to its statistics, the shortage at the Hsinchu park was 2,951 people in 2003 and 6,086 people in 2004. Although the scant number dropped to 3,677 people in 2005, it shortly climbed to 5,932 in 2006.

For the Hsinchu park, electronics engineers are the most wanted talents. In May 2006, the park was in dire need of 4,151 electronics engineers, representing around 70% of the total job vacancies offered by the park's enterprises. About 94.7% of the vacancies are offered to graduates of undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees.

For the southern Taiwan park, professional workers and technicians are the most needed talents. DGBAS' statistics show that until late May 2006 the park still had a total number of 3,943 vacancies needed to be filled, compared with 3,392 vacancies left until June 2004.

DGBAS' statistics show that enterprises at the Hsinchu park take an average 2.8 months to recruit an ordinary worker and 3.1 months to recruit a professional workers, compared with the average 5.2 months for an ordinary worker and the average 5.5 months for a professional worker spent by enterprises at the southern Taiwan park.

Even regular pay differences between employees at the Hsinchu park and the southern Taiwan park are apparent. For division leaders at the Hsinchu park the average pay is NT$71,732 (US$2,173 at US$1:NT$33) a month, compared with the average NT$51,667 (US$1,565) for their counterparts at the southern Taiwan park's enterprises.

Workers at the Hsinchu park's enterprises are paid NT$32,895 (US$996) a month, on average, compared with the average NT$25,805 (US$781) for their counterparts at the southern Taiwan park's enterprises.

source & copyright: CENS