Hong Kong's unemployment rate dropped to a four-year low of 5.2 percent due to the robust economy growth of 7.3 percent in 2005, the financial secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said Wednesday.

"240 000 new jobs have been created over the past couple of years as a result of our economy's recovery," said Financial Secretary Henry Tang when presenting the 2006-2007 government budget to the Legislative Council on Wednesday morning.

While the total employment reached a new high of 3.43 million, unemployment rate of the city also dropped to a four-year low.

"Recently, the unemployment rate fell from 8.6 percent in mid- 2003 to a four-year low of 5.2 percent," said Tang.

The number of long-term unemployed also fell from its peak of 93,000 to 57,000.

Following the robust growth of 8.6 percent in 2004, the economy registered a GDP growth of 7.3 percent last year, with continuous growth in fields of exports of goods and services, fixed asset investment and consumer spending.

As the economy expanding, wages and income also moved up gradually. The average wage of workers in the middle to lower segments of the market increased again in 2005 after falling for a number of years, said Tang.

The number of full-time employees with a monthly income of 15, 000 HK dollars (1,935 U.S. dollars) or above rose from 21 percent to nearly one third of the total number of full-time employees, said Tang.

In contrast, the number of people earning less than 9,000 HK dollars (1,161 U.S. dollars) a month fell from 1.12 million to 930, 000, which equals to a drop from almost 50 percent to 38 percent.

Though optimistic about the economic growth and employment prospect for this year, Tang admitted that certain industries, such as those related to construction, and their employees have yet to benefit from the current economic recovery.

Source: Xinhua