Since the 1970s, the domestic and international economic conditions have gone through radical transformations. The nation’s economy spiraled downward in 2 or 3 years following the first global oil crisis, but has shown an overall trend of recovery since. Factories retrenched massive numbers of employees and then again sought workers urgently. The dramatic shakeup in the labor market threw the labor supply out of balance. In response to these changes in the socio-economic climate and to deficiencies in monthly survey supplementary data results, and to reflect the actual status of labor supply and demand, the DGBAS began to conduct this survey on a yearly basis at the beginning of each year since 1976. Initially, the survey was named the “Taiwan Area Employee Movement and Labor Demand Survey”, and the scope of the investigation was limited to six categories, namely mining, manufacturing, water/electricity/energy, construction, and transportation/communication. Because the service industry has become increasingly important since 1987, and in order to cooperate with the Executive Yuan’s policy of better statistical information of the service industry, the survey extended its scope to eight categories with the addition of wholesale/retail/food service and the financial/insurance/real estate service/business service categories. This resulted in an even more comprehensive scope required of the information proffered by the DGBAS.
With this extended scope, the survey was renamed the “Taiwan Area Employee Movement Survey”. Further amendments were made to the survey categories to separate the financial/insurance/real estate service/business service category into the financial/insurance/real estate service category and the business service category. This went into effect in 1993 and further extended the scope of the survey into nine categories. During 1995 and 1996, the survey was suspended due to insufficient funds and recommenced in 1997. This survey was broken down into four major areas of investigation as follows:
(I)Overview of employee movement;
(II)Characteristics of employees entered and exited during the year;
(III)Characteristics of employees remaining at the end of the year; and
(IV)Non-wage compensations (from 1997).
Due to the fact that the socio-economic environment is always in flux, this survey has also been expediently amended in response to the vibes of the socio-economic setting. This survey flexibly incorporates e-commerce and temporary posting questions on part-time employee and benefits, wage increments, employee bonuses, regular wage distribution of new employees, weekly employee work hours, and criteria that attract employees. Answers to these questions assist the government in its work of planning relevant policies.
The success of this survey is owed greatly to the cooperation of selected companies for providing accurate and thorough information. The DGBAS would like to extend its most sincere appreciation to those companies. In the planning and design of the survey, oversights are inevitable; we welcome comments and suggestions from all parts of the society.