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rbos
Joined: 22 May 2010
Posts: 69
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 Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:26 pm Post subject: Bad Economy in Taiwan? Difficult for Teachers to Find Work? |
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I'm planning on traveling to Taiwan soon to look for work as an ESL Teacher. However, since the worldwide economy is in general in decline right now, I wonder, is the economy experiencing a lot of problems in Taiwan?
If so, how is the economy impacting prospective teacher's chances of finding employment and how is it affecting the amount of money they receive as a salary? For example, is the economy bad enough that parents aren't enrolling their kids as much in English classes?
-Thanks |
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dangerousapple
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 292
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 10:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Its not so much the economy as the negative birth rate here. In the next few years, a lot of kindergartens are going to go out of business. There are far fewer kids than there were 15 years ago. |
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adogadie
Joined: 18 Sep 2010
Posts: 82
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 5:42 am Post subject: |
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Yeah fifteen or 20 years ago were the golden years for teachers. Less teachers. vacuum pump recruiters were not around and School owners didn't do too much internet advertising, and many more children for teachers. Now even the quality of the children here is going trough some demoralization process due to the tons of Vietnam children entering classrooms through marriages of their parents; however it is these new marriages that are producing more babies. At least in the farm areas.  |
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Dr_Zoidberg
Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Posts: 406
Location: Not posting on Forumosa.
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| Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 1:33 am Post subject: |
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Gone are the days when every foreign wanker who got off a plane could run to Taipei and be swamped with job offers.
If you want to find work GET OUT OF TAIPEI, go south, and look around the small towns. That's what I've done and I get so much work being offered to me that I'm turning it down.
Of course, small towns don't suit the recently graduated because they want to be where the party is. |
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dangerousapple
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 292
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| Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 5:53 am Post subject: |
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| The wife told me there are a number of elementary schools out in the sticks that only have one or two grade one kids this year, and my daughter's kindergarten laid off several staff last month because there weren't enough new students coming in. Its a good thing the Vietnamese brides are having children, because nobody else is! |
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Taylor
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 384
Location: Texas/Taiwan
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| Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 3:39 am Post subject: |
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| Amen! |
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Rooster_2006
Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 984
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| Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:22 pm Post subject: |
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| dangerousapple wrote: |
| Its not so much the economy as the negative birth rate here. In the next few years, a lot of kindergartens are going to go out of business. There are far fewer kids than there were 15 years ago. |
Hmmm...I'm not sure if I agree that the birthrate is the primary reason for it being hard to find a job in the EFL industry these days. I think the declining birth rate is merely a secondary reason. I believe that the number of jobs has only decreased somewhat (due to the birth rate), but the number of prospective teachers has surged over the last few years, which has had a far more profound impact on how hard it is to find a job. I'll explain how I came to this conclusion:
- The birth rate is definitely lower now than it was in the past. That's true.
- However, the birth rate hasn't declined that much, has it? What was it five or ten years ago, when jobs were still plentiful? Even if it went from 2.0 to 1.3, that would be a 35% decrease, right? Therefore, rather than having three teachers competing for three jobs, this would mean three teachers competing for two jobs.
- In the scenario I just gave, with three jobs becoming two because of the declining birth rate, that might not actually even happen. Some schools would just cut the teacher's hours instead of going out of business. Some schools would give 14 hours to a teacher who previously had 20 -- the job would still exist, the hours would just be fewer. This would not really be a problem for the school, since teachers are paid hourly, and as enrollment decreases, so does the school's expenses (the teacher's pay, and teachers are expensive).
- However, if the economy sucks in the US (particularly if PS teachers are laid off there), THOUSANDS can go overseas looking for work. Suddenly, three teachers applying for two jobs (as in the declining birthrate scenario mentioned above) becomes 30 teachers applying for two jobs as there is a tenfold increase in waiguoren on the island looking for work. And that's when it gets nasty.
So...I think the declining birthrate plays some role, but I disagree that the role is stronger than that of the bad economy in the US/elsewhere.
Furthermore, the birthrate may have declined, but now that many families only have one child, they have more money to spend on that child for things like English lessons. And any cram school currently in business will have either gone out of business or stayed in business -- the birthrate has been low for several years, if not a decade or so. It did not just drop like a stone overnight (it was already less than 2.0 by the mid-1980s: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/10/04/TW_POP0410.gif).
The number of prospective teachers, on the other hand, has spiked because of the Mandarin boom and the series of economic crises. So many people want to learn Mandarin now because of "rising China mania," and the bad economy back home has made teaching overseas a much more appetizing thing to do.
I think that glut of prospective teachers is more at fault than the declining birthrate. |
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dangerousapple
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 292
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| Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 12:44 am Post subject: |
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creztor
Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Posts: 476
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| Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:05 am Post subject: |
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| There's plenty of jobs! Come on over! |
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Vendetta
Joined: 29 Sep 2011
Posts: 10
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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| A couple of weeks ago, I heard that up to 6% of the US population has left for greener pastures. It didn't break them down by professions, though. Just a thought on how bad things are going back there. |
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Rooster_2006
Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 984
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| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 5:12 am Post subject: |
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| Vendetta wrote: |
| A couple of weeks ago, I heard that up to 6% of the US population has left for greener pastures. It didn't break them down by professions, though. Just a thought on how bad things are going back there. |
Seriously? 6% of a nation of 300 million people -- that's 18 million Americans who have left if what you say is true. And if that is true, it would be like the Philippines or South Korea.
Source, please? |
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creztor
Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Posts: 476
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| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 5:28 am Post subject: |
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"up to 6%", stress is on the "up to" Rooster  Could be 0.6%! |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Vendetta wrote: |
| A couple of weeks ago, I heard that up to 6% of the US population has left for greener pastures. It didn't break them down by professions, though. Just a thought on how bad things are going back there. |
Yeah, but a lot of them went to Canada. Not a problem for us! |
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creztor
Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Posts: 476
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| Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 2:52 am Post subject: |
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| Or maybe Mexico? |
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markcmc
Joined: 18 Jan 2010
Posts: 262
Location: Taiwan
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| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:35 am Post subject: Re: Bad Economy in Taiwan? Difficult for Teachers to Find W |
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| rbos wrote: |
| I'm planning on traveling to Taiwan soon to look for work as an ESL Teacher. |
Did you come to Taiwan? |
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