20% of businesses planning lay-offs in fourth quarter: Job Bank survey

The survey by the online employment service provider found that 20.04 percent of local companies will cut staff during the last three months of this year because of the tough economic times, up from a figure of 13.73 percent in a similar survey conducted at the end of June.

At the same time, 12.88 percent of the companies said they are considering shutting down this quarter, up from just 5.03 percent in the June survey.

A breakdown of the figures showed that 37.76 percent of the manufacturing departments of the surveyed companies said they have already laid off staff or are planning to do so this quarter, while 32.65 percent of marketing departments said they will cut staff, 31.63 percent of administrative departments will lay off personnel, and 15.31 percent of customer service departments will also do so.

In analyzing the results, Ryan Wu, chief operating officer of 1111 Job Bank, said that in economic downturns, manufacturing departments are usually the most directly hit, while staff in marketing and administration are also affected as these departments usually try to streamline their operations during tough times to cut costs.

The survey also found that retailers of daily necessities have been particularly hard hit by the economic downturn, with 65.85 percent saying their business has declined compared to the same time last year, dropping by an average of 20.85 percent since September.

The 1111 Job Bank carried out the survey between Oct. 24 and Nov. 7, with a total of 489 valid samples being collected.

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