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Following is the transcript (English portion) of the remarks made by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, on the latest unemployment statistics at a media stand-up today (August 18):
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: The unemployment rate for the period May to July remained unchanged at 5.4%, showing signs of stabilisation in the labour market. The underemployment rate increased slightly from 2.3% to 2.4%. Total employment decreased by around 900 to 3.5 million people (3,505,300) while the labour force increased by 9,800 to an all-time-high of 3.7 million people (3,719,000).
The number of unemployed persons increased by 10,800 to 213,800 and the number of underemployed decreased to 88,600. The increases of the unemployment rate were more apparent in the education, insurance, and repair, laundry, domestic and miscellaneous personal services sectors.
It is important to note that decreases were seen in a number of major sectors, including construction, financing, and arts, entertainment and recreation sectors.
The unemployment situation of the construction sector has seen notable declines. In fact, the decoration and maintenance sub-sector decreased prominently by 2.4 percentage points to 14.2%, accumulating a total decrease of 7.4 percentage points over three consecutive periods. The foundation and superstructure sub-sector also fell by 0.3 percentage point to 10.1%. It is clear that the Government¡¦s efforts to boost employment in the construction sector have continued to take effect.
The unemployment rate of the financing sector also continued to fall by 0.7% to 2.4%, as did the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, down by 0.6% to 3.7%.
More notable increases in the unemployment rate this time were found among persons aged 15-24. In other words, youth unemployment is increasingly apparent here. If you look at the period between April and June, the latest figure we have, the unemployment rate for the age group 15-19 stood at 24.3%. We are talking about 12,000 youngsters being unemployed. For those aged 20-24, the unemployment rate stood at 10.6%, the number of people affected is 31,000 youngsters.
The labour market has shown signs of stabilisation in the second quarter of this year in tandem with the improvements on both domestic and external fronts. With the rebound in economic activities, the labour market has displayed much resilience recently. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate will continue to face upward pressure as business sentiments remain cautious in the initial stage of economic recovery and employers are generally rather conservative in hiring new hands.
With fresh graduates and school leavers joining the labour market this month and also in September, the pressure on employment is expected to be fully reflected in the next two months.
While we are seeing encouraging signs of an economic recovery, the economic outlook remains highly uncertain. For a small, open economy like Hong Kong, a sustained and solid recovery still hinges on a fundamental improvement in the external environment. The impact of human swine influenza is also another risk factor. Hence, the recovery process of our economy can be rather bumpy.
As for the unemployment rate, it is a lagging indicator, its improvement usually lags behind economic recovery, hence we can expect the unemployment rate to stay at a relatively high level for some time even after the economy has bottomed out.
However, we will continue to monitor the situation closely and continue to work towards our policy target of stabilising the financial system, supporting enterprises, and preserving and creating jobs as well as, of course, implementing the host of measures announced earlier to stimulate the economy and to ease unemployment.
(to be continued)
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:53
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