A shortage of high-tech workers has been forecast for Taiwan's six major high-tech industries in the next two years, according to a report reaching here from Taipei on Saturday.

The survey, conducted jointly by the Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute and two other organizations, forecast a shortage of between 10,000 and 54,000 workers during the 2006-2008 period, depending on how the economy performs.

According to the survey, which covered the semiconductor, biotechnology thin-film-transistor (TFT) led manufacturing, telecommunications, information service, and digital content industries, a total of 140,000 jobs will be created in the six sectors if the economy experiences a boom.

Even the economy's performance is lukewarm, about 106,000 new workers will be needed in the six sectors, according to the survey.

However, Taiwan's colleges and universities will only turn out 96,000 graduates equipped with the knowledge and skills to work in these fields.

The semiconductor industry is expected to lead among the six sectors in terms of job opportunities, at 33,600, followed by the biotechnology sector (22,000) and the TFT-Led manufacturing sector (13,900).

In order to ease the worker shortage, biotechnology sector businesses have called for the introduction of foreign high-tech workers.