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Following is the transcript of the media session by the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, on the latest unemployment rate at the ground floor lobby of Central Government Offices (West Wing) this afternoon (February 19):
Financial Secretary: The latest (seasonally adjusted) unemployment figure for the period from November last year to January of this year is 7.3 percent and the underemployment rate is 3.3 percent. This figure is the same as the figure of the fourth quarter last year. However, I am still cautiously optimistic that the general employment situation remains good because the total number of unemployed persons has been reduced by 8,200 persons to 245,000, and the total employment has increased by 4,700. Everyday the Labour Department is receiving about 1,000 vacancies, which reflects a continued improvement in the general employment situation. We emphasize that employment will continue to be a challenge for us and it is up to us to further improve our economy so that we could improve our employment situation.
Question: Why did the figure remain the same when the number of employed persons has increased?
Financial Secretary: This is a seasonal adjustment. There is an IMF formula for seasonal adjustment that caters to local market conditions and local economic conditions and will have a full year neutral effect. Because of this seasonal adjustment, even though the total number of unemployed persons has come down and the total number of employed persons has gone up, the (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate remains unchanged.
Question: You said you are cautiously optimistic. How much further you see the unemployment figure will go down?
Financial Secretary: I am cautiously optimistic because the other numbers I have seen remain fairly buoyant. The number of unemployed persons has continued to decrease. The total number of employed persons has continued to increase. The number of job vacancies in the Labour Department remains buoyant. This is a sign that the general market situation is still quite good although it is not reflected in the seasonally adjusted unemployment figure.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
End/Thursday, February 19, 2004
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