Majority of employees in Taiwan generally satisfied with jobs

A survey by the Ministry of Labour (MOL) found that 71.2% of workers were generally satisfied with their jobs, with 3.7% being dissatisfied.
By: | January 28, 2021
Topics: Employee Experience | Health and Wellness | News | Taiwan | Talent Management

The percentage of workers happy with their jobs rose 0.9 percentage points from the previous year, according to MOL’s annual survey on workers’ living and employment conditions. 

The top two sources of satisfaction were gender equality, cited by 97.8% of respondents, followed by good working relationships with colleagues, cited by 95.5%. 

Aspects which caused job dissatisfaction include: employee performance evaluation and promotion systems, cited by 74.6% of respondents, followed by wages (66.4%) and workload (57.1%). 

In addition, the survey found that 43.8% of local employees worked overtime during the period, down 2.5 percentage points year-on-year. They worked an average of 14.9 hours of overtime a month, down one hour compared with the previous year. 

Sectors where employees worked the most overtime were publishing, audio and video production, broadcasting, and information and communication industry, with 59.1% of employees clocking extra hours.   

They were followed by 57.8% in the professional, scientific and technical services sectors and 57.3% in the electricity and gas supply sectors. 

About 87.6% of employees were paid for their overtime work or given time off-in-lieu, down 2.9 percentage points from a year ago. 

The survey also found that 81.5% of workers wanted to maintain their current working hours of eight hours per day and 40 hours per week, 11.1% wanted to work fewer hours, while 7.4% wanted to work more hours mainly because they wanted more income. 

The survey, conducted in May last year, also asked how the pandemic affected the respondents’ working lives. 

About 7.3% of respondents said they were affected by layoffs, pay cuts, or company closures at their workplaces due to the pandemic. Another 6.1% said the outbreak had disrupted their plans for changing jobs or careers. 

READ: Taiwan’s employment rose for sixth consecutive month

Meanwhile, 18.8% of respondents said they have plans to pursue further studies or learn other skills due to the impact of the pandemic, and 3.6% said COVID-19 has thwarted their plans to work overseas. 

The MOL survey sampled 4,215 individuals who were enrolled in Taiwan’s labour insurance system, according to Focus Taiwan.