
Sports mean big business as Olympics spark wave of sports mania
The Paris Olympics have sparked off a wave of sports mania! These Games have provoked a spike in interest in lots of sports, including boxing and badminton. That means the industry is booming, and more and more people are making sport their business. A jobseekers’ website survey showed that 65% of office workers have a regular exercise habit. There are more and more job listings for sports-related industries.
Minla crouches down in time with the music, her core engaged, and lands a series of punches. Six years ago, the 23-year-old gave up her office job to switch to full-time boxing fitness coaching. Her working day is an hour shorter but she’s earning NT$10,000 more a month.
Minla
Boxing fitness coach
If I put in more time, and make my classes richer, then I will definitely get more students. And my income will of course increase too. The salary in this career doesn’t seem to have any ceiling right now. Right now, there’s more demand for coaches than supply.
The sky’s the limit for fitness coaches’ earnings, which is why Minla decided to make a career out of her passion. Student inquiries have shot up about 15% thanks to Paris Olympics fever.
With the boost from Taiwan’s badminton team winning a gold, this part-time badminton coach of seven years, Peter, says that summer school badminton coaches can expect an income boost of 150%. Peter also works as a private English tutor and a marketing consultant, and his various freelance ventures reliably earn him more than NT$100,000 a month.
Peter
Freelancer
Before, I was earning around NT$20,000-30,000 a month from badminton. Since the Olympic wave began, that’s grown to NT$30,000 or NT$40,000, or sometimes approaching NT$50,000, depending on the schedules of the students.
Tseng Chung-wei
Jobseekers’ website spokesperson
The backend database of Job Bank reveals that since one point three years ago, during the pandemic, the number of sport-related job listings has grown by about 15%. There are now more than 3,000 such listings. The sport trend of recent years has been steadily growing, and that means we have more and more fitness coaches who are working part-time, have a portfolio career, or indeed have moved into the field full-time.
Sport is the new hot trend. More than 80% of office workers have been paying attention to the Olympic Games this summer. Sixty-five percent of them have a habit of exercise, and on average, people adopt a regular exercise habit at the age of 31.6 years. The average spend on sports is NT$2,867 per month, and that’s pumping up the employment opportunities in related industries.
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2024-08-13