Page 48 - 2023 BRAVO! TAIWAN – Your best investment choice

Highly Professional Workforce

Labor Market

¾ A Quality Labor Force That Continues to Improve
In 2022, the labor force dropped by 66,000 to 11.85 million due to a decrease in the population over 15
years of age. Overall, Taiwan's labor market is quite stable, as demonstrated by the long-term growth
trend from 11.2 million people in 2011 to 11.92 million in 2021. In 2021, the labor force participation rate
was 59.18% and the unemployment rate was 3.67%. Due to the great increase in the popularity of
higher education over the past decade, the proportion of the labor force with college degrees or higher
has continued to rise. The government has also promoted the combination of learning and application,
industry-university cooperation, lifelong education, and other policy programs to further strengthen the
competitive advantage and quality of Taiwan's workforce.
Over 300,000 students graduate from colleges and universities in Taiwan every year, of which close
to 60,000 have master's and Ph.D. degrees. In 2022, 6.21 million employees or 55% had a college
degree or higher. In 2021 there were approximately 14.7 person-years of full time researchers per 1000
employees. The accumulated technical and managerial talent in the manufacturing and service industries
means that ensures that foreign firms investing in operations in Taiwan can meet their need for high-level
technical and management personnel.

¾ Rising Labor Productivity

During the past decade, Taiwan's consumer price index (CPI) has risen by an average of 1% per year,
while the salaries of industrial and service employees have risen by an average of 2.3% per year.
Although Taiwan's commodity prices and salaries have risen steadily for many years, the productivity of
industrial sector employees has increased at an average rate of 3.6% per year, and labor productivity is
continuing to rise.

Average Regular Monthly Wages in the Five Major Industries for Foreign
Investment (Units: NT$)

Manufacturing Publishing,
audio-visual Finance
Wholesale Real
Electronic and retail production, and Estate
Components dissemination, insurance
Manufacturing and ICT services

Total 40,884 49,702 41,295 62,093 65,956 42,619
Executives and Supervisors 78,492 102,642 72,888 97,351 116,855 65,496

Professionals 62,174 69,746 52,482 66,773 69,432 56,900
Technicians and Associate
Professionals 42,497 46,036 42,102 54,238 61,723 41,604
Clerical Support 34,258 43,862 33,420 40,997 50,179 34,605

Service and Sales 34,085 34,572 29,601 38,655 47,907 36,120

Artisans, Machinery
Operators, and Assemblers 32,319 37,184 33,730 57,291 46,360 46,718
Basic Laborers 26,692 29,428 27,899 19,462 35,139 23,675

Source: Ministry of Labor (https://www.mol.gov.tw/) July 2021 survey of job categories
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