Hong Kong's Labor Department and the Employees' Retraining Board will jointly stage the largest-ever recruitment event, "Recruitment Expo 2005", at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center next Wednesday, providing about 9,400 vacancies.

Hong Kong Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labor Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said Sunday that "as the economy continues to revive, the demand for manpower in various industries and trades is increasing. The Labor Department, therefore, stages this forum to cater for the needs of the market and help employers recruit staff and job-seekers find jobs, according to a government press release Sunday.

"The Expo is the largest of its kind held so far in Hong Kong in terms of the number of participating employers and vacancies offered, " he said.

The employers come from a variety of industries and trades, such as hotel and tourism, banking and financing, retail, catering,personal and business services, aviation, information technology, logistics, manufacturing and property management.

The vacancies include such positions as customer service officer, shop manager, sales, merchandiser, clerk, accounts clerk,beautician, restaurant manager, waiter, cook, property management officer, security guard, logistic officer, financial planner, engineer, cadet pilot, flight attendant, programmer and technician.

Monthly salaries range from 4,000 HK dollars (513 US dollars) to 40,000 HK dollars, with most of the jobs in the range of 6,000 HK dollars to 8,000 HK dollars.

"Eighty-five percent of the vacancies require Form 5 educational level or below, while 65 percent of them are open to job-seekers without relevant experience. Hence, most vacancies are suitable for job-seekers at large.

"About 10 percent of the vacancies or more than 900 vacancies are suitable for graduates of tertiary institutes," Cheung said.

A total of 16 retraining bodies will display retraining information and accept applications on the spot.

As the labor market sentiment remained buoyant and the local economy continued picking up, the unemployment rate for the quarter ending January fell to a three-year low of 6.4 percent.

Xinhua