Many companies have seen the utilization rates at their production facilities plunge in line with drastic drops in orders. Cash is burning out, and to combat the loss, companies are forced to cut their expenses. One major way is to reduce spending on employees, many of whom are not needed at idle plants.

Massive layoffs have not yet occurred, but some companies have their managers take pay cuts.

Others are asking employees to take their annual leave as soon as possible, or rearrange their work schedule so that they work fewer days a week. The extra days off are unpaid. The United Evening News has observed that traffic jams no longer occur during rush hour at Taiwan’s three science parks in Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan.

Parking spaces can be found anywhere at the science parks. In Hsinchu, home to Taiwan’s most famous electronics industry cluster, more people are seen bicycling or having a cup of tea during daytime at scenic spots. They are not tourists from outside the region, but engineers or workers who were forced by their electronics companies to take leave, the paper said.But no one is really complaining, as they feel lucky to still have a job, it said.

The paper reported that a major semiconductor company in Hsinchu has asked some of its employees to take half pay for a three-month suspension from work, during which they can look for new jobs.

But if they fail to find one, there is no guarantee that the company will take them back, the paper said.

Few now dare to hope for year-end bonuses, and the usual year-end feasts — a Chinese tradition where employers show gratitude to their employees — have become a thing of luxury.

Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), the world’s fourth largest LCD panel maker whose utilization rate has dropped below 60 percent, already plans to call off the year-end feast, the paper said. CMO has just dismissed a newspaper report that it has plans to shut down one of its plants. But it added that it does not rule out doing so in the future to cut costs.

The electronics companies’ woes are also rippling across their communities, with eateries in their neighborhood seeing fewer customers.

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