Dirty work Professor Hsueh Cheng-tai of National Taiwan University's Labor Institute outlines the sequence of events that led to the current situation. Ever since the 1960s, with the spread of universal education and rapid expansion of the service sector, young people have increasingly steered clear of employment in labor-intensive industries, especially shunning jobs in the "3D" trades (involving work that is dirty, dangerous and difficult).
台灣大學勞工所教授薛承泰指出，台灣引進外勞是有跡可循的，六、七十年代以來教育普及，減少年輕勞動人口，服務業迅速擴張，勞力密集的工作也使年輕人卻步，尤其所謂的三 K 行業（骯髒、危險、艱辛。原為日文用法）更乏人問津。