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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, on the implementation of minimum wage and youth employment at a media stand-up session after attending a public function this morning (June 25):
Reporter: (About the implementation of minimum wage and youth employment)
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Implementation of minimum wage up to now has been generally stable and smooth. Labour inspectors of the Labour Department conducted close to 3,000 inspections to workplaces during the last three to four weeks since the first of June. There were only 12 suspected cases where employees' pay are believed to be below the minimum wage requirements. The labour inspectors have taken prompt action to remind employers to rectify the situation to protect the interest of employees.
At the same time, the number of private sector vacancies received by the Labour Department has remained fairly consistent at around 3,000 per working day which is at the same level as before the implementation of minimum wage. So in other words, at the moment, looking at the statistics available today, minimum wage does not have any major impact on the labour market. In fact, it has been fairly stable and fairly smooth so far. Of course, we are reaching summer peak in terms of graduates and school leavers joining the labour market. So we expect pressure to build up in the next few months. However, the economy is doing well at the moment, a very buoyant economy and we believe the number of jobs generated should have cushioned the impact arising from the rise in labour force.
In fact, if you look at the unemployment figures released recently for the March - May period, 15,000 new jobs were created in Hong Kong which is very encouraging. Of course, the implementation of statutory minimum wage also attracted more people to join the labour market. So the labour force has grown by around 17,800. So in other words, there is a sort of supply and demand imbalance. Therefore, this explains why the number of unemployment has grown slightly but generally the unemployment rate has remained stable.
If you look at the number of applicants for Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, also there is no increase at all. In fact in the last 20 months, the number of successful applicants for unemployment benefit has been declining. For the latest period, it is down by 0.1%. For low income supplement under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, it also decreased by 1.3%. So, on the whole, the picture is generally stable and pretty smooth. Of course, because external environment is pretty fluid at the moment, we need to monitor development closely to see what we have to do to help job seekers and employers alike.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, June 25, 2011
Issued at HKT 15:10
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