Following is a question by the Hon Leung Man-kwong and a reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, in the Legislative Council today (January 28):
 
Question:

     The Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS) seeks to enhance the mechanism for labour importation and, on the premise of ensuring employment priority for local workers, alleviate the manpower shortage across different sectors. However, it is learnt that various sectors of the society are concerned about ESLS's impact on the employment of local workers, especially those in industries with relatively high unemployment rates such as the retail industry and the food and beverage services industry. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the total numbers of labour importation applications received and approved by the Government since the implementation of the ESLS, with a breakdown of the numbers by industry and post;

(2) of the mechanism put in place by the Government for continuously monitoring ESLS's impact on the local employment market, and whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of the monitoring mechanism concerned in a timely fashion; and

(3) given the relatively high unemployment rates in certain industries (such as the retail industry, the food and beverage services industry and the construction industry) at present, whether the Government will consider suspending labour importation for these industries or establishing a mechanism whereby the Labour Department may suspend the processing of labour importation applications involving these industries when the unemployment rates of the industries concerned reach a specified level, so as to safeguard the employment of local workers as a priority; if not, of the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     To cope with the challenges brought by manpower shortage and foster Hong Kong's economic development, and on the premise of ensuring employment priority for local workers, the Government suitably allows employers with genuine difficulty in recruiting suitable local workers to apply for importation of workers. Apart from launching sector-specific labour importation schemes for the residential care home sector, construction sector and transport sector, the Labour Department (LD) has implemented the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS) since September 4, 2023, to allow employers with genuine needs to apply for importation of workers for posts that were generally excluded under the previous Supplementary Labour Scheme (SLS).   

     The reply to the Member's question is as follows:

(1) Since its implementation and as at December 2025, the ESLS received a total of over 22 500 applications seeking to import over 171 000 imported workers. In the order of the number of workers applied for, the five industries with the highest numbers were food and beverage services, retail, security services, cleaning services and cargo forwarding. During the same period, over 14 900 applications were approved involving over 96 100 imported workers. Classified by job titles, the highest numbers of imported workers approved were waiter/waitress, junior cook, cook, sales assistant and cleaner.  Detailed breakdowns of the numbers are at Annex 1 and Annex 2. 

(2) and (3) The Government has been monitoring closely the employment market, including making reference to various statistical data and relevant statistical analyses on employment and income of local employees, maintaining close communication with the stakeholders, as well as making reference to the latest labour market situation to adjust the implementation arrangements of the ESLS in a flexible and targeted manner. On the premise of ensuring employment priority for local workers, importing labour at an appropriate scale can help local enterprises sustain their operations, transform and enhance service, and is conducive to the long-term development of the local economy and labour market.  

     To strengthen the protection of employment priority for local workers, the LD has implemented a series of measures since mid-2025, including displaying the names of applicant companies when publishing job vacancies for local recruitment under the ESLS on the Interactive Employment Service website to increase transparency, and launching additional measures to strengthen the monitoring of employers' local recruitment arrangements; conducting a special inspection campaign to check whether establishments employing imported workers have continuously met the manning ratio requirement, and requiring employers to report information on full-time local employees and imported workers as well as the relevant manning ratios based on a risk-based approach; other application(s) submitted by the same employer within six months after the employer submitted an application under the ESLS not processed generally; and launching an online complaint form to enable local employees and imported workers to lodge complaints against employers over suspected breaches of the ESLS requirements.  

     Having regard to the job posts with more imported workers and the employment market situation, the ESLS introduced new requirements on local recruitment on September 10, 2025, requiring employers applying to import waiters/waitresses and junior cooks to join a job fair held at a job centre specified by the LD once a week during the local recruitment period, and conduct job interviews on the spot. In addition, since September 18, 2025, the local recruitment period for applying to import waiters/waitresses and junior cooks has been extended from four weeks to six weeks, and a tightened manning ratio requirement of 2:1 has been implemented for the above-mentioned two posts by changing the calculation basis from all posts of an applicant employer to each post under application, requiring employers applying to import a waiter/waitress and a junior cook to have already employed two local full-time waiters/waitresses and two local full-time junior cooks. The new requirement of attendance at job fairs enhances the transparency of the job application process and enables local job seekers to apply for jobs at job fairs instantly, thereby facilitating employment matching and encouraging the industry to take on suitable local job seekers. The post-based manning ratio requirement also effectively drives employers to employ local workers to take up relevant posts. Since the implementation of the above new requirements, the number of applications for labour importation from the food and beverage services industry has dropped markedly in recent months. The approval rate and the number of imported waiters/waitresses and junior cooks approved have also both declined.

     The LD is reviewing the ESLS, including its coverage, operation and implementation arrangements; measures to promote and ensure employment priority for local workers, etc. To tie in with the ESLS review which is to be completed in the first half of 2026, the Labour and Welfare Bureau has commenced the mid-term update of the Manpower Projection and accorded priority to data analysis for industries with a higher proportion of imported labour, in order to provide the relevant part of analytical results earlier for reference in the ESLS review and support the Government's medium- to long-term planning.

     The Government will continue to closely monitor and respond to developments in the employment market, and will implement the arrangements for labour importation in a dynamic and targeted manner, with a view to striking an appropriate balance between ensuring employment priority for local workers and maintaining an adequate manpower supply to support economic development.

Ends/Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Issued at HKT 13:00

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