HK unemployment rate drops to 30-month low

A Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government spokesman said Thursday that the labor market situation had continued to improve, with the unemployment rate dropping to a 30-month record low of 6.8 percent in June-August period.

He said that at the same time, the total number of employment soared to another record high of 3.29 million. The buoyant sentiment was also reflected in the number of vacancies captured by the Labor Department last month.

According to the latest labor force statistics released Thursday by the Census and Statistics Department, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined slightly from 6.9 percent in May-July to 6.8 percent (provisional) in June-August.

The statistics also indicated that the under-employment rate also fell, from 3.5 percent to 3.3 percent (provisional) between the two periods.

He said the major rises were in the catering, business services and retail industries. Meanwhile, the Labor Department successfully found jobs in August for 7,683 people, also a record high, the spokesman said.

He pointed out that the unemployment situation has also improved notably in recent months in the construction industry, the hardest-hit sector.

The government has earmarked an average of 29 billion HK dollars (3.71 billion US dollars) per year for capital works projects for the next five years, creating some 44,000 jobs annually, according to the spokesman.

"Apart from public works projects, the construction of the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park has also created over 5,700 employment opportunities under government works. Another 4,000 jobs are expected to be provided by Hong Kong Disneyland during the construction peak in 2004-05.

"Meanwhile, 27 hotels will be completed between now and 2006. All these would help improve the employment situation in the construction sector," the spokesman said.

Source: Xinhua