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The economic recovery has generated a significant number of new jobs in Hong Kong, the Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said today (August 25).
Speaking at a dinner hosted by the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, Mr Cheung said that Hong Kong's employment situation had improved recently with total employment reaching an historic high of 3.37 million. With the economic recovery, new jobs had been created to absorb the growth in labour force.
He said that according to the latest forecast, the local labour force would grow substantially from 3.55 million in 2004 to 3.77 million in 2014.
"Hong Kong needs to create some 200 000 new jobs in the next 10 years to absorb this increase in the workforce. Tackling the employment problem will therefore be a long-term challenge."
Mr Cheung pointed out that apart from job creation, the challenge facing the labour market and which must be addressed was the problem of structural unemployment brought about by economic restructuring, globalization, wider application of information technology and corporate downsizing.
"The 'one high two low' group in the labour market is facing the greatest risk of unemployment. This refers to those people aged 40 or above and with relatively low educational attainment and low skill level," he said.
According to statistics, although the number of unemployed middle-aged people had dropped from an all-time high of 140 000 to about 100 000, it still constituted about half the total unemployed population.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate of people with lower academic qualification is relatively higher. The jobless rate of people with lower secondary or below educational attainment is 8.5%, which is higher than those with tertiary education and degree level by 4.1 and 4.9 percentage points respectively.
As far as occupations are concerned, while the unemployment rate of professionals and managerial staff, representing one-third of the employed, has dropped to 2.6%, the rate for low-skilled workers stands at 6.6%.
On individual industries, the unemployment rate of the construction industry is still on the high side though it has decreased from the peak of 20% in the summer of 2003 to the latest 13.5%.
The figure for the manufacturing sector also dropped to 6.6% from an all-time high of 8.6%. Of the industry's total employment of 236 000, 15,000 were unemployed.
"The Government has adopted a multi-pronged and robust approach to meet the challenges on the employment front by improving the business environment in order to create more jobs," Mr Cheung said.
"We will continue to promote the development of the four pillar industries -tourism, logistics, producer services and financial services - to create more jobs through market forces.
"At the same time, we will enhance the skills of our workforce to meet the labour demand of the knowledge-based economy.
"In the first seven months of this year, the Labour Department has placed 60,000 people into employment.
"An average of 1,800 vacancies has been received from the private sector on each working day so far this month. This is an historic high, representing an increase of 12.5% over the daily average of 1,600 vacancies in the first half of this year. The overall labour market sentiment remained generally buoyant," he said.
Apart from providing employment services, the Labour Department runs a number of employment programmes to help job-seekers with different needs and from various strata. These include the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme, Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme, Employment Programme for the Middle-aged, Work Trial Scheme, Work Orientation and Placement Scheme and Special Incentive Allowance Scheme for Local Domestic Helpers.
Mr Cheung pointed out that the employment outlook, in the near term hinged on whether the robust economic growth could be sustained and the ability of local enterprises to create jobs.
"CEPA and the Individual Visit Scheme for Mainland residents have created tens of thousands of jobs in Hong Kong and the Mainland.
"The Hong Kong Disneyland has already created some 18,000 new jobs, both directly or through its supporting services such as hotels and retail outlets. Its grand opening next month will further boost in-bound tourism, local consumption and the demand in the hotel, retail and catering industries.
"However, because of seasonal factors, the unemployment rate will fluctuate and face pressure to reverse its downward trend as fresh graduates and school leavers join the labour market in these few months.
"But overall speaking, since our economic fundamentals remain strong, we are cautiously optimistic about the employment outlook," he said.
Ends/Thursday, August 25, 2005
Issued at HKT 19:16
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