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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TAIPEI 002869 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/TC, 
PLEASE PASS AIT/W 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON TW
SUBJECT: Taiwan Focus on High-Tech Labor Shortage 
 
REF: TAIPEI 02768 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY: Following several years of rapid expansion, 
high-tech companies have recently experienced difficulty 
finding skilled workers in Taiwan.  Expanded access to 
higher education has led to a decrease in the number of 
applicants for production jobs, and the opening of a new 
science park in central Taiwan is expected to create more 
competition for both production workers and professionals. 
While many Taiwan companies have moved their production to 
the Mainland in part because of low labor costs there, 
rising wages in the PRC may make this option less attractive 
in the future.  Many firms find immigration restrictions on 
bringing Mainland and foreign employees to Taiwan a problem, 
and in response the government has begun to liberalize some 
regulations.  Affected industries and government agencies 
alike are focused on these issues, building expectations 
that the high-tech labor shortages will decrease in severity 
over the next few years.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Demand for Skilled Workers Outstripping Supply 
--------------------------------------------- - 
¶2. (U) Taiwan is in the midst of a transition from a 
manufacturing to a service-oriented economy, as its 
manufacturing jobs move across the Taiwan Strait to the PRC. 
Many of the manufacturing jobs remaining in Taiwan are in 
high-tech industries such as semiconductor and flat panel 
display manufacturing, which require highly skilled workers. 
Following several years of rapid expansion, high-tech 
companies have recently experienced difficulty finding 
skilled workers in Taiwan.  This report analyzes current 
problems in Taiwan's high-tech labor market, and initiatives 
to both develop more local talent and recruit more 
international staff. 
 
¶3. (U) The Executive Yuan's Science and Technology Advisory 
Group (STAG) released forecasts for labor requirements in 
six high-tech industries between 2005 and 2007.  The 
industries surveyed were: semiconductor, TFT-LCD (or flat- 
panel display), digital content, information services, 
biotech, and telecommunications.  Total shortages for all 
six industries are estimated at 9,665 for 2005, 3,940 for 
2006, and 2,475 for 2007.  The semiconductor, TFT-LCD, and 
digital content industries all reported a particular need 
for electrical and mechanical engineers.  Shortages and 
surpluses per year for each industry are given in the table 
below: 
 
          Labor Supply Shortages and Surpluses, per Year 
Industry             2005      2006      2007 
 
Semiconductor       -3500      1300     -1300 
 
TFT-LCD             -800      -700      -1000 
 
Digital Content     -3700     -3000     -2300 
 
Info. Services      -2060     -1770     -1500 
 
Biotech              195       130      -75 
 
Telecoms             200       100       3700 
 
TOTAL SHORTAGES:    -9665     -3940     -2475 
 
¶4. (U) The semiconductor industry is expected to undergo 
some fluctuation in staffing needs over the next three 
years.  To some extent, availability of workers for 
semiconductor firms depends on conditions in the TFT-LCD 
industry.  The rapid growth of TFT-LCD firms over the past 
two years has caused a surge in demand for engineers and 
other skilled staff.  In interviews with human resources 
managers at several semiconductor firms, the TFT-LCD 
industry was cited as their main competitor for skilled 
workers.  Jobseekers are increasingly attracted to TFT-LCD 
because salaries and stock incentive packages are more 
lucrative than at semiconductor firms, due to better stock 
performance.  Additionally, workers find jobs in TFT-LCD 
manufacturing to be less stressful: engineers in 
semiconductor production perform an average of 400 
processes, while TFT-LCD production requires only around 100 
processes.  Due to this preference for jobs in the TFT-LCD 
industry, some semiconductor firms such as UMC are 
experiencing high turnover as employees leave for jobs at 
TFT-LCD firms.  However, it is expected that semiconductor 
industry stock price levels will rebound in the third 
quarter of 2005, and that firms will then be in a better 
position to recruit new workers. 
 
¶5. (U) STAG predicts the greatest shortages over the next 
three years in the digital content industry, which is fairly 
new in Taiwan.  The information services industry is 
expected to have shortages, especially for programmers. 
Biotech is still an emerging industry in Taiwan, and is not 
expected to experience any labor shortages in the next two 
years.  By 2007, STAG forecasts that small shortages will 
begin to appear in the biotech sector, and that they may 
increase in following years.  On the other hand, the 
telecommunications industry is predicted to have an 
oversupply of labor, by as much as 3,700 in 2007. 
------------------------------------------- 
Changing Distribution of Jobs Within Taiwan 
------------------------------------------- 
6.(U) Currently, firms at Hsinchu Science Park in northern 
Taiwan have access to the largest pool of skilled workers, 
but face the greatest competition for workers from other 
firms within the Park.  Firms at the newer Tainan Science 
Park in southern Taiwan have a more limited supply of 
workers, but face less competition for them from local 
firms.  The recent opening of Taichung Science Park in 
central Taiwan and the projected rapid growth of the TFT-LCD 
industry there will likely attract some workers away from 
Hsinchu and exacerbate the growing competition to attract 
skilled workers among all three of the Science Parks. 
However, Hsinchu is still likely to find it easier than the 
other Science Parks in attracting graduates as the majority 
of universities are in northern Taiwan. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
Education and Population Trends Related to Shortages 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
¶7. (SBU) In addition to competition between expanding high- 
tech firms for a finite number of workers, there are a 
number of other factors behind the current high-tech labor 
shortages.  Dr. Lin Dah-June, counselor at the Council for 
Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), cited the rapid 
expansion of universities in the past ten years as a 
contributing factor (see reftel).  Taiwan's labor 
participation rate, or the percentage of the working-age 
population in the workforce, is a relatively low 58% and has 
declined as more people spend more time in school. 
Additionally, Taiwan's low birth rate and aging population 
may be expected to lead to further shortages in the future. 
The implications of Taiwan's aging population will be 
examined septel. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Because a larger percentage of senior high school 
graduates now go on to post-secondary education, there are 
fewer high school graduates interested in working on the 
production side in high-tech firms.  In the semiconductor 
industry, entry-level production jobs are high-pressure, 
require 14 to 16 hour days, and pay relatively little - an 
average starting salary is US$750 per month.  These working 
conditions make it difficult to recruit applicants in 
Taiwan.  Some firms, such as Winbond Electronics, have begun 
using Filipino production workers to fill the gap. 
For positions requiring a university degree, many firms 
prefer to recruit only from the top institutions, where they 
are more confident of the quality of graduates.  Graduates 
from the newer and less prestigious institutions find it 
more difficult to get jobs. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Lin also noted that to date there has not been 
sufficient investment in vocational training programs.  In 
2003, the Council of Labor Affairs, the Ministry of 
Education, and the German Trade Office cooperated to 
establish a vocational training program on the German model, 
and are expanding the program this year.  One semiconductor 
company interviewed noted that it had not yet participated 
in any government vocational training programs because of 
the heavy reporting requirements placed on the companies. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Decreasing Competition from Across the Strait 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶10. (SBU) In the past, the expansion of high-tech industries 
in the PRC and the growing availability of a highly skilled 
and educated workforce there have caused some Taiwan 
companies and workers to look across the Strait for 
opportunities.  Currently, the Taiwan government strictly 
limits the ability of semiconductor companies to move their 
operations to the PRC.  Freddie Liu, CFO of the Taiwan 
semiconductor packaging and testing company Advanced 
Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), expressed to AIT the 
longstanding opposition by industry to limitations on cross 
strait investment activities.  Liu explained that if 
restrictions were lifted on packaging and testing firms, ASE 
would expand operations to the PRC not just because of the 
market opportunities, but because China could provide the 
human resources ASE needs to meet the demand of the Mainland 
market. 
¶11. (SBU) Liu commented that the Chinese labor market had 
advantages in terms of quality as well as quantity. 
According to Liu, the strong work ethic of Mainland workers 
is similar to that of Taiwan workers twenty years ago, and 
it is difficult to find similar workers in Taiwan today. 
However, he may not represent the majority view with respect 
to the relative skills of Taiwan and PRC workers.  A recent 
survey of Taiwan employers by the 104 Job Bank, a large 
employment agency, found that most employers still think 
workers in Taiwan have better professional and management 
skills and more valuable work experience than mainland 
workers. 
 
¶12. (U) The wage gap between high-tech industries in the PRC 
and Taiwan, which has been an incentive for Taiwan companies 
to invest in the Mainland, is narrowing.  In 2004 the 
average monthly wage for a university graduate in Shanghai 
was US$483, compared to US$953 in Taiwan.  104 Job Bank 
estimates this gap will disappear in the next five years. 
Additionally, the premium paid for Taiwan engineers working 
on the Mainland is decreasing.  Previously, Taiwan engineers 
were able to double their salaries by working in the PRC, 
but are now only earning 30% to 50% more than their Taiwan 
salaries.  These trends make it difficult to predict the 
impact of labor costs on future Taiwan investment in the 
Mainland, but it appears that rising wages among PRC workers 
may make labor costs less of an incentive to move production 
to the Mainland in the future. 
 
------------------------------- 
Problems Hiring Foreign Workers 
------------------------------- 
¶13. (U) Many Taiwan and international firms have complained 
about the bureaucratic difficulties they face in both hiring 
foreign workers and bringing their PRC staff to Taiwan for 
events, training, or short-term work.  There are currently 
minimum investment and revenue requirements that prevent 
many smaller entrepreneurial companies from bringing foreign 
staff to Taiwan.  It is also difficult for multinational 
companies to get work permits for foreign interns, which 
leads many interns interested in working in East Asia to 
choose positions in China instead. 
 
¶14. (SBU) The government's restrictions on bringing workers 
from the Mainland to Taiwan stems from both political issues 
and concerns about competition for jobs between Mainland and 
local workers.  However, ASE's Liu noted that the current 
lack of engineers in Taiwan could be addressed in part by 
allowing skilled Mainland workers to come to Taiwan for two 
to three-year short-term assignments.  He added that the 
increased competition would also be beneficial to the 
quality of Taiwan's labor market. 
 
¶15. (U) Regulations have been liberalized to some degree in 
recent years, and in May, the Council of Labor Affairs 
announced some further changes that made minimum salary and 
revenue requirements for hiring foreign workers somewhat 
more flexible.  However, further liberalization is required 
if firms are to be able to bring Mainland and other foreign 
employees more easily to Taiwan.  The American Chamber of 
Commerce highlighted these issues in its May 2005 White 
Paper, proposing the formation of a Taiwan government 
interagency human resources task force to streamline 
regulations.  Prompted in part by the concerns raised by 
AmCham, CEPD plans to hold a ministerial-level meeting on 
high-tech human resources policy in July.  The meeting, 
which will include CEPD, the Ministry of Economic Affairs 
(MOEA), Ministry of Finance, Council of Labor Affairs, and 
Mainland Affairs Council, will address new proposals for 
reducing shortages of high-tech workers and relaxing 
restrictions on foreign employees entering Taiwan, 
especially professionals from mainland China. 
 
------------------------ 
Other Policy Initiatives 
------------------------ 
¶16. (U) In 2003, STAG and CEPD developed a joint plan for 
dealing with high-tech labor shortages, which focused on 
strengthening cooperation between academia and industry, 
promoting vocational education, and recruiting foreign 
workers and overseas Taiwanese.  To promote cooperation with 
academia, the Ministry of Education and MOEA now provide 
subsidies to companies working closely with universities 
(described in reftel).  Cooperating firms contribute funds 
to top universities for scholarships, and in return students 
sign two-year contracts with the firms.  This year, the 
National Science Council established a summer internship 
program, the Taiwan Tech Trek, aimed at overseas Taiwanese 
students in science and technology.  The program arranges 
paid internships with national laboratories and firms in the 
science parks to expose students to future work 
opportunities in Taiwan. 
 
¶17. (U) A short-term solution that has been implemented is 
the reserve military service, which permits men with masters 
degrees in electrical engineering and IT fields to 
substitute employment in the private sector for their 
mandatory two-year military service.  If selected for this 
program, they are required to sign a four-year contract. 
The program currently accepts 3000 people per year.  AmCham 
recommended in its White Paper that this program be expanded 
and streamlined to permit more people to enter as soon as 
possible.  However, the program may instead be reduced or 
ended in the near future, due to complaints from legislators 
and academics that it violates the spirit of the 
constitutional requirement of military service. 
 
¶18. (U) COMMENT: The shortage of skilled workers for 
Taiwan's high-tech industries has received serious attention 
recently.  Companies are concerned that they are unable to 
fill vacancies and government agencies have noted serious 
shortages in the fast-growing TFT-LCD and digital content 
industries, which are key elements in the Taiwan 
government's plans for economic growth.  The upcoming July 
inter-ministerial meeting on high-tech labor issues could 
produce some useful initiatives and changes in regulations 
to promote the freer flow of labor across the Strait, and 
will prove an important indicator of the government's 
seriousness in tackling this problem.  In addition, 
continued attention to the development of closer 
relationships between firms and universities, strengthening 
of vocational programs, and liberalization of immigration 
laws to permit short-term work by Mainland professionals are 
necessary to provide the workers Taiwan's high-tech sector 
needs.  End comment. 
 
PAAL