RELEASE DATE: 27 November 2019

CONTACT: Amber Hsu

Tel: 2740 0236 ext. 216

2020 employment in Taiwan bolstered by software development, online gaming start-ups and app development: Michael Page

Taiwan will experience fierce competition for talent in the key progress areas of digital, engineering, technology and data in 2020. As the market experiences a net brain drain to mainland China, Taiwan will continue to witness a candidate-driven hiring landscape. Details from the Michael Page Taiwan Salary Benchmark 2020 further highlights that 63% of respondents are inclined to work overseas next year.

That said, Mark Tibbatts, Managing Director, Michael Page Taiwan identifies some encouraging market indicators, “There are several hiring bright spots for Taiwan. Technology in particular continues to look promising and we anticipate market buoyancy for software development, online gaming start-ups, app development and other developer-driven sectors.”

“Big global players in technology have also affirmed their investment in Taiwan. Google announced plans to double its office space in 2020, while Amazon and Microsoft have confirmed plans to expand research & development centres,” continues Mark Tibbatts.

Other findings from the Michael Page Taiwan Salary Benchmark 2020 reveal exponential growth of digitalisation across industries. With increased digital transformation efforts, the financial services sector is expected to decrease their hiring in back office positions as the functions are either replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) or outsourced. Advancements in healthcare are also driven by the increasing adoption of home-based sensors, robotics and AI-enabled home health monitoring platforms. This will boost hiring needs in the future which combine both healthcare and technology expertise.

“We expect further positive signs from Taiwan’s traditionally strong sectors such as engineering while semiconductors, renewable energy as well as healthcare & life sciences continue to look promising in the next year. We are also seeing encouraging levels of activity in manufacturing while hiring managers in financial services sound confident, particularly as Taiwan remains a relatively high-skill and low-cost business location,” observes Claire Wu, Director, Michael Page Taiwan.

The year ahead will see continued advancement of AI, Internet of Things and 5G wireless communications. Therefore all experts in these fields will be sought after by companies. Taiwan’s start-ups are also on the road to consolidation within the e-commerce, C2C platforms, streaming as well as AI SaaS solutions spaces. In order to achieve business success, attracting and retaining top talent will be key. In addition, DevOps is earmarked to have a milestone year as an increased number of companies from various industries implement cloud platform into their software development processes and the importance of microservices rise. These candidates skilled in technology can command an average 15% salary increase when switching jobs within similar industries.

Michael Page Taiwan spokespeople will be available for bilingual interviews if you would like more employment insights and salary trends in 2020. Please contact Germaine Lim germainelim@michaelpage.com.sg for more information.

Editor’s Note: The Michael Page Taiwan Salary Benchmark 2020 report was produced in collaboration with the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT), and released at an ECCT Premium Event lunch held on 27 November 2019. Data for the report is derived is derived from 8,000 data points in the group’s proprietary data and network in Taiwan, which includes job advertisements and placements from July 2018 to June 2019.

About the ECCT

With over US$55 billion in direct foreign investments, European businesses are collectively the largest group of foreign investors in Taiwan. The European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan is the largest foreign nationwide business chamber in Taiwan and the principal organisation promoting European business interests in Taiwan. The chamber represents over 900 members from 400 companies and organisations. Through a network of 30 industry and support committees, the ECCT has been successful in addressing specific concerns and providing concrete recommendations to all levels of government to facilitate improving the business environment. The ECCT annual position papers comprise issues identified by its committees as hindering the further development of their respective industries and provide recommendations to the government of Taiwan for improvement of the business environment on general issues as well as industry-specific problems. They also serve to keep the European Commission and parliament as well as the governments of individual European countries informed about Taiwan’s business environment.