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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a media session by the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, on the latest unemployment rate this (November 18) afternoon at the ground floor lobby of West Wing, Central Government Offices:

Financial Secretary: The latest unemployment figure for August to October is 6.7%. It's a mild drop of 0.1%. Underemployment remains at 3.2%. This particular quarter actually has experienced a very large increase in employment of 15,000 people. We have hit a historical high in the total number of people who are employed at 3.298 million. The industries that are associated with tourism have enjoyed a fairly substantial increase in the number of employed persons. Since August 2003, we have created about 110,000 jobs. Although the increase in the number of people who are employed is fairly significant, we remain vigilant and remain concerned about structural unemployment. We remain committed to our efforts of creating more employment through facilitation of the economy.

Reporter: Why such a big increase in employment?

Financial Secretary: It is very much (due to) market forces, because in these few months we have experienced a fairly drastic increase in the number of tourists as well as domestic-generated consumption. So the industries that have been hiring people are those in the services industry and tourism related industries.

Reporter: Which industry will remain rather weak?

Financial Secretary: It's very hard for us to predict what will remain rather weak, but we remain vigilant of the situation that there are still quite a number of people who remain jobless.

Reporter: Can we expect this momentum to be maintained......?

Financial Secretary: It's very hard to say because although this month we have seen a very significant increase in the total number of people who are employed, but we have also seen quite a large increase in the number of people who have joined the labour market. So it is a situation where people feel that it is more likely for them to find a job, they will join the labour pool, whereas maybe 12 months ago they felt that it might not be so easy to find a job so they did not join the labour pool. So it's very hard for us to predict how many people are more optimistic about finding a job and therefore joining the labour pool.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Thursday, November 18, 2004

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