The world’s labor shortage has become a trend. According to a survey by a well-known human resources company, the industry with the most labor shortage in Taiwan in the third quarter was the healthcare and life sciences industry. Ranking second is the transportation and logistics industry and the automobile industry. Ranked third are industrial and materials companies.

Milwaukee, WS (Merxwire) – The world’s labor shortage has become a trend, and many countries seek migrant workers to fill the manpower gap. According to a well-known human resources company survey, the healthcare and life sciences industries ranked first in Taiwan’s third-quarter employment survey report as the industries with the most job shortages. Ranking second is the transportation and logistics industry and the automobile industry. Ranking third are the industrial and materials industries, with labor shortage ratios of 43%, 41%, and 31% respectively.

This report surveyed 630 corporate employers. The main goal is to understand the employment status of Taiwanese companies from July to September 2024. The healthcare and life sciences industries, which rank first in labor shortages, saw a 23% increase in labor shortages compared with the previous quarter. As the global population structure moves toward an aging society, Taiwan is no exception. Therefore, long-term care and chronic disease management require more physical facilities and talents to cope with the manpower demand for care and the expansion of chain pharmacies.

The main reason for the lack of work in the healthcare industry is the rapid increase in patients. Front-line employees often have to be on call at any time even if they are on vacation. The working hours are long and the pressure is extremely high. Medical staff must first go through a rigorous training phase to become qualified pharmacists or nursing staff, and then they face the process of working in shifts. Since the care of patients and the elderly is not suitable for casual replacement, and it also takes time to hand over the patient’s condition, there are often hidden working hours. Many emergencies need to be dealt with during caregiving, which not only affects off-duty time but also increases stress, so the turnover rate is quite high.

The transportation and logistics industry, which originally ranked first, fell to second place. During COVID-19, because we were working from home and studying online, we relied heavily on home delivery for daily supplies. Therefore, the demand for hardware equipment and manpower increased significantly at that time. After the epidemic, the domestic and foreign tourist population increased. Airports, airlines, and express trains all need more manpower to cope with the growth of global travel. Therefore, the number of manpower needs has always been among the top.

Moreover, the labor shortages in the transportation and logistics industries and the automobile industry affect each other. It’s not just drivers or station staff who are short. To maintain safe transportation, maintenance personnel of various vehicles are indispensable. From the shortage of technicians in the general automobile industry to the shortage of maintenance personnel for trams, ships, and aircraft, the time required for repairs is lengthened and the quality of daily inspections is degraded. It not only affects our daily lives but also raises hidden worries about traffic safety.

In addition to the medical and transportation industries, the tourism and catering industry has also been facing a shortage of manpower. About 50% of companies have a shortage of full-time employees, especially in cleaning, housekeeping, and catering services. They can only try to fill the manpower vacancies with part-time employees or migrant workers. In the face of manpower vacancies, some restaurants have no choice but to shorten their operating hours or adopt a reservation system to cope with the shortage of workers. At the same time, they have proposed a bonus system in the hope of retaining old employees and attracting new staff to make them willing to stay in the service industry.

According to statistics from the Taiwan Tourism Administration in 2023, the short number of workers in Taiwan’s hotel industry is about 8,000, of which cleaning and housekeeping staff account for about 5,500. With the increase in foreign tourists, the hotel industry has also begun to expand the number of rooms. It is expected that the number of labor shortages will exceed 10,000 by 2025, and manpower will be even tighter. And there is currently no effective solution, which makes the industry very worried.

The service industry is inherently at a disadvantage in the job market due to long working hours, low wages and the need for shifts during holidays. In recent years, the labor shortage has become more serious due to the impact of declining birthrate and changes in employment aspirations. Nearly 70% of operators have adjusted their business methods as a result. In addition to increasing the proportion of part-time workers and adjusting business hours, some operators have introduced smart ordering and online payment systems, all in order to reduce manpower needs.

Can the industrial manpower shortage be alleviated? Not so optimistic yet. Because during COVID-19, the demand for manpower in the service industry has dropped significantly, causing manpower to be transferred to other industries. In addition, modern people attach more importance to the balance between work and life, so jobs with flexible time, shorter working hours, or two days off are more popular among people. Relatively speaking, the willingness to become medical staff, logistics personnel, transportation industry technicians, and hotel and restaurant industry service personnel will decrease. They can only rely on the industry’s salary benefits and policies to introduce external manpower to alleviate the increasingly intensified manpower problem.