TSMC to add hundreds of staff to R&D department

TAIPEI, April 9 (Reuters) - TSMC, the world's top contract chip maker, said on Thursday it had started adding hundreds of staff at its research and development department and 12-inch wafer facilities, the latest sign of a possible sector turnaround.

"There's still a general freeze on hiring, but we're seeing a shortage in our research and development department, and will need hundreds of employees there," said P.H. Chang, vice-president for human resources at TSMC (2330.TW) (TSM.N).

TSMC and its smaller rival UMC (2303.TW) (UMC.N), like many other tech companies in Taiwan, have benefitted from China's recent move to encourage spending on electronics in rural areas.

UMC said on Wednesday its March revenue fell by a half from the year before, a better performance than the preceding two months, sending its shares up by the 7 percent daily limit as investors bet that the sector was bottoming out. [ID:nTP325135]

Late last month, TSMC Chairman Morris Chang told reporters that the outlook for the global semiconductor industry was improving. [ID:nTP67516]

Shares of TSMC were up 3.98 percent in morning trade on Thursday, outpacing a 3.25 percent advance on the benchmark TAIEX share index.

TSMC has more than 20,000 employees worldwide.

TSMC will report its March revenue on Friday, and release its first quarter earnings and outlook for the current quarter by the end of this month.

(Reporting by Argin Chang; Writing by Kelvin Soh; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)