Taiwan Salaries See Modest Growth

Average wages in Taiwan rose from January through April despite inflation. But gains weren't even across the economy.

Transcript

00:00Some good news for workers in Taiwan.

00:02The latest government figures show many employees are earning slightly more these days.

00:07From January to April, the average salary was just over US$1,400 a month.

00:12And though inflation ate up much of these gains,

00:15total earnings, including bonuses, came out to around US$2,000 a month for the average worker,

00:20an increase of more than 1% from the same period last year.

00:24The demand for workers is also high.

00:34Job search platforms are listing over a million unfilled positions in the country,

00:38which has a population of around 23 million people.

00:41But some sectors are seeing much higher salaries than others.

00:45Much of the growth has been in the tech industry.

00:48In terms of employment, there are around 22,000 jobs in the semiconductor industry.

00:53AI requires 24,000 jobs a month,

00:58which is a lot of work.

01:00In semiconductors and AI, the average worker takes home around US$1,700 a month.

01:06That's less than IT and finance workers,

01:09but several hundred more than workers in hospitality or manufacturing.

01:14Taiwan's leading tech research institute predicts a bonanza year for the semiconductor industry,

01:18with production worth over US$158 billion,

01:22up nearly 18% from last year,

01:24meaning the gap may widen still.

01:27Ryan Wu and John Ventriest for Taiwan Plus.