2016 Kaohsiung Digital Industry Job Fair: Companies Offer High Salaries Despite the Slump

Kaohsiung is actively promoting the digital cultural and creative industries, and to help local companies recruit talent, the Kaohsiung City Economic Development Bureau has targeted the post-Chinese New Year job-change wave since 2014, holding a large-scale recruitment event every year after the Lunar New Year. On the morning of the 20th, the third "2016 Kaohsiung Digital Industry Job Fair" kicked off with great fanfare at the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center. A crowd of 1,500 poured in as soon as the event began. 41 companies were invited to take part, offering a total of 608 job openings, with an average salary of nearly NT$40,000. These included major IT firms such as Hon Hai Group, Hopebay Technology, Wistron, and Chang Jung Information, making the number of participating companies the highest in the event's history. By the end of the event, 1,507 resumes had been received both on site and online, setting a record high for the event and representing 40% growth over last year.

To showcase Kaohsiung's investment promotion results in recent years, the event arranged for two companies interested in investing in Kaohsiung, Chang Jung Information and 66.com, to sign letters of investment intent with Economic Development Bureau Director-General Tseng Wen-sheng. The two companies' combined investment amount totaled NT$302.25 million, which will bring more than 200 job opportunities to Kaohsiung.

Director-General Tseng Wen-sheng stated that since Kaohsiung began promoting the digital industry in 2010, the number of companies has grown from 46 to 152, more than tripling in just 5 years, while cumulative investment has grown from NT$320 million to NT$10.6 billion, creating 7,948 job opportunities and building a richer and more diverse employment environment for Kaohsiung. He expressed hope that young talent would no longer need to leave home to find work.

Even amid the economic downturn, the average salary for openings at this year's event was still nearly NT$40,000, higher than last year's average of NT$35,000. Nearly half of the job openings offered pay of NT$45,000, and some even offered high salaries of NT$80,000 to attract 3D art talent, showing that companies' eagerness to recruit was even greater than in previous years.

From March to May this year, the Kaohsiung City Government will continue the momentum of the job fair, for the first time leading local companies and jointly holding campus recruitment expos with three benchmark universities: National Taiwan University, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, and National Cheng Kung University. By proactively going onto campuses, it hopes to give more people the chance to discover good job openings in Kaohsiung and make Kaohsiung the top investment choice for digital industry companies seeking a dependable talent pool.