As employment opportunities in Taiwan are getting sparser, over 110,000 young Taiwanese are relocating to Southeast Asian countries to seek higher salaries and better job prospects. Labour statistics suggested that youth unemployment rate has exceeded 10 percent for nine straight years, with the ratio for people aged 20 to 24 reaching 12.8 percent in August.

Countries such as Vietnam and India are indicating economic growth at around 7 percent a year, which make them even more attractive destinations for young people in Taiwan, whose growth expanded just 2.8 percent last year.

According to a data from Taiwan’s leading online recruitment agency 104 Job Bank, the number of Taiwanese aged between 25 and 29 uprooting to Southeast Asia has jumped as much as 62 percent in the three years to 2017. The number of people applying for vacancies in the region rose 33 percent to 53,137, Nikkei Asia reports.

Karen Ma, a researcher at Hsinchu-based Industrial Technology Research Institute said, “We are seeing a clear trend of both companies and workers flowing to Southeast Asia and India this year. The business environment is deteriorating in China, and the trade war provides fresh incentives for talent and companies to quickly expand to new locations beyond China.”

Michael Hsieh, chief strategy officer of food company Vedan International Holding, shared similar view, “We’ve been seeing more and more Taiwanese companies and young Taiwanese come to Vietnam over the years. It’s a massive market in itself.”

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