For Immediate Release
Hong Kong’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years to 2.9%, further exacerbating the acute manpower shortage and adding to businesses’ challenge of finding staff to grow their businesses.
“Many companies tell us they are extremely frustrated at not being able to hire more badly needed hands to even sustain their businesses,” said Stephen Ng, Chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. “We have been suffering from manpower shortages for too long, so we really need to start seeing some solutions being put into place urgently, which we hope will be presented in the upcoming Budget.”
The latest labour force statistics released by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) showed the food & beverage, retail and health care sectors suffered from constantly high vacancy rates, with combined total vacancies surpassing 27,000. Overall, the C&SD statistics showed total vacancies had risen to 71,149.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Dr Law Chi-kwong, said, "The labour market remained in a state of full employment … entering 2018, the labour market is expected to remain tight.”
“We are all suffering from the shortage of manpower, which everyone has to endure in their daily life, whether that is a shortage of salespeople, waiters, or doctors; so it is not just businesses that are paying the price,” said Shirley Yuen, CEO of HKGCC. “Besides having the side effect of additional pressure and long working hours on employees, it is also resulting in a deterioration of services.”
“The Government is investing in capital works projects, emerging innovation and technology sectors, and the digital economy, but we cannot see where the labour is going to come from to support those projects,” added Ng. “We have been talking about acute labour shortages for too long. We need to start seeing solutions urgently.”
Media inquiries: Please contact Mr Ray Lai at 2823 1297/ [email protected]