Businesses in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) are showing signs of recovering from a deep economic slump, as job openings are increasing and fewer workers remain on unpaid leave, STSP Administration Director Chen Chun-wei said Saturday. Chen's assessment came as 12 companies based at the science park in Tainan County, including prominent firms such as TSMC, UMC, Chi Mei and Motech, jointly sponsored an employment fair at which more than 500 job openings were available. Apart from the private sector, Chen said, the county's labor affairs bureau was also recruiting over 100 workers for companies from outside the science park at the fair. Although more than 4,000 job seekers flocked to the event to find work, a sign of continuing high unemployment, Chen predicted confidently that the business environment has improved and that the park will employ 60,000 people next year and reach a production value of NT$550 billion (US$16.92 billion). Meanwhile, the number of park workers still on unpaid leave has dwindled to around 200, compared to an average of over 600 new jobs being created in the park every month since September, Chen said. The Hsinchu Science Park in northern Taiwan, the Central Taiwan Science Park and the Southern Taiwan Science Park are the country's main high-tech manufacturing centers. The southern park is composed of two separate parks -- the Tainan Science Park and the Kaohsiung Science Park -- with integrated circuits, optoelectronics, biotechnology, telecommunications, and precision machinery the main sectors represented there. 