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Unemployment rate drops to 5.2%
By George Ng (HK Edition)
Updated: 2009-11-18 07:31
HONG KONG: The unemployment rate in Hong Kong eased further during the August to October period as many job seekers left the labor force during the period, the latest official figures show. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined 0.1 percentage point to 5.2 percent during the three-month period, an improvement from the figure for the July to September period, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department. The improvement followed another 0.1 percentage point fall during the July to September period, which was the first time in nearly two years. But Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung remains cautious about the prospects for the labor market. "The decrease in total employment in the latest round of figures suggests that it may take some time for the labor market to keep up with the pace of economic rebound," he told a press briefing. "A sustained and solid recovery still hinges on a fundamental improvement in the external environment." he cautioned. However, he tried to temper worries by saying that "as business conditions continue to improve, employers are expected to adopt a more positive attitude towards new hiring. This will ease the pressure on unemployment". Though the jobless rate is lower, economists pointed out that the improvement in the headline figure is basically due to a significant drop in the number of job seekers rather than new job creation. "The latest figure surprised us a bit. But the improvement was mainly due to a drop in the labor force. New job creation was still very weak," Hang Seng Bank senior economist Irina Fan said. "The latest data does not flag a persistent downtrend in the jobless rate," Fan said. A fall in the number of unemployed persons and in total employment simultaneously indicates that many jobless persons have dropped out of the labor force on whatever reason, rather than having found a job. "The jobless rate may even rebound if many of those job seekers (who have given up) return to the labor market and try to find a job," the economist said. The labor force decreased by 26,000 to around 3.679 million during the three-month period, compared with the previous period, while total employment also decreased 7,200 to around 3.488 million. Though the labor market as a whole remains difficult, the employment figures for young people are comforting. The unemployment rate of youths aged 15-19 dropped noticeably by 3.0 percentage points to 22.7 percent, indicating that the youth employment situation is gradually improving, Mathew Cheung said. The unemployment rate of the construction sector has also continued to fall, with the latest figure at 7.9 percent, down by 1.5 percentage points. "It is clear that the government's all-out efforts to create jobs in the construction sector are continuing to bear fruit," he said. There was also improvement in employment conditions of food services, insurance and wholesale sectors. "The jobless rate may decline gradually as the export sector is expected to improve in the coming months," said Paul Tang, chief economist at Bank of East Asia. Meanwhile, the underemployment rate - a measure of the number of people whose employment is below their appropriate skill and salary level - for the August to October period remained unchanged at 2.4 percent.
(HK Edition 11/18/2009 page4) |
