Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has been aggressively recruiting talent this year, with its demand for workers in the second quarter rising more than 44 percent from a year earlier, Web site 104 Job Bank has said.

The industry is worth NT$3 trillion (US$107.9 billion).

In a white paper on the semiconductor industry’s workforce, 104 Job Bank said that Taiwan-based semiconductor companies averaged 27,701 job openings per month from April to June, the most in six-and-a-half years.

That was an increase of 44.4 percent compared with the second quarter of last year and was the fourth consecutive quarter in which the figure rose.

104 Job Bank said that while the global economy has been hurt by COVID-19, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has benefited from strong demand for emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 5G applications and the Internet of Things, and continued to grow.

The booming stay-at-home economy, including the rising popularity of online learning and remote work, has also boosted demand for semiconductors, driving the need for more workers, 104 Job Bank said.

Within the semiconductor industry, the IC manufacturing sector saw the monthly average of its job openings in the second quarter grow 55.3 percent from a year earlier, it said.

This compares with 51.2 percent for the IC packaging and testing sector, and 40.8 percent for the IC design sector, it said.

IC engineers accounted for about 55 percent of the job openings advertised in the semiconductor industry per month on average, 104 Job Bank said.

Despite the growing demand, the average monthly wage in the semiconductor industry fell NT$195 (US$7), or 0.4 percent from a year earlier, to NT$52,483 in the second quarter, trailing the computer and consumer electronics industry’s NT$54,640, it said.

The IC design segment offered an average monthly wage of NT$67,834, compared with NT$56,190 in the IC manufacturing segment, and NT$47,014 in the IC packaging and testing segment.

The average pay, including bonuses, in the local semiconductor industry was NT$1.7 million, lower than the NT$2 million to NT$3.5 million seen in the US, Singapore and Japan, 104 Job Bank said.

●Origin：Taipei Times
●Link：https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2021/08/09/2003762265