Though the economic flu hasn't yet affected job opportunities for engineers in most of Asia, it certainly has reduced their purchasing power in terms of U.S. dollars. Since in worldwide terms Asian engineers have been the most underpaid in the world, the general weakening of currencies against the dollar is especially hard-felt.

For countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, a lack of employment opportunities for engineers is now a reality. Indonesia never had much of an electronics industry and now may never get one. Thailand's nascent electronics industry is for the most part bankrupt. Stories of Thai engineers being forced to sell snacks on the streets or become tour guides are told widely there.

Singapore's electronics industry seems to be staying in the game. Brian Klene, vice president of marketing for Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., reported that he has seen no signs of layoffs yet. "There has been a decrease in turnover here in the last quarter," Klene says. "The fact that people aren't jumping around from firm to firm as they did before is significant."

Wages for engineers in Singapore remain some of the highest in Asia. Klene says that an EE with five years' experience (but not a manager) gets about $3,000 per month.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese engineers have taken a salary hit relative to the U.S. dollar. Last year an EE with five years of fab experience made the equivalent of about $3,000 a month. This year, the same amount of New Taiwan (NT) dollars is worth only a little over $2,000.

Opportunities for engineers here are still available, however. "We are still hiring," says Jinn Haw Tzeng, spokesman for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. "A just-graduated en-gineer, however, will make less than $1,000 per month." But in Taiwan, the real impetus for working hard is not salary, but equity. Unlike in many companies in the United States, even the lowliest of engineers can garner significant wealth via ownership of equity.

"Under Taiwanese tax law, companies must distribute 3 to 15 percent of their profits to all of their employees in the form of stock," explained a securities analyst for Merrill Lynch Taiwan. "Further, the stock is given to the employees at par value [about 30 to 50 U.S. cents, depending on foreign exchange rates] as opposed to their market value. Typically, the market value of high-tech stock is seven to 150 times the par value."

Essentially, this law allows Taiwan's stock investors to fund the nation's economic expansion. The stock-option bonus plan lets engineers get a bonus of up to another 40 months worth of salary thanks to these progressive tax incentives.

China, so far, has been largely unaffected by the Asian flu, and growth in the electronics sector continues there. Jobs for engineers are available but not particularly lucrative by worldwide standards-$400 to $500 per month is a good salary for a typical mainland EE with five years of experience. However, Chinese law also requires companies to furnish low-cost or free housing, medical and commuting expenses.

Interestingly, few Chinese expect to see equity distribution for engineers and technicians any time soon in the world's largest and last bastion of the supposed "workers' society." Engineers there don't believe a system like the Taiwanese stock-distribution model could appear in China in the near future.

Return to 1998 Salary & Opinion Survey