Hongkong's Unemployment Rate Rose By 70% To Freeze Wages.

Affected by the financial tsunami, the unemployment rate in Hongkong is rising, and it is expected to continue to deteriorate in the coming months.

In the near future, a large number of employees will be recruited.

Wen Wen Po reported that the financial tsunami had put the "wage earners" bowl in a severe test. The unemployment rate in Hongkong increased by 0.9 percentage points in two months. At present, the unemployment force in Hong Kong is over 170 thousand.

The latest unemployment rate released by the census and Statistics Department yesterday climbed to 5%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points over the previous announcement, reaching a 34 month high.

5 major disaster areas include construction, pportation, import and export trade, manufacturing and catering.

Zhang Jianzong, director of labour and welfare, predicted that the unemployment rate will continue to soar in the short term. But it is believed that further relaxation of individual travel measures in the mainland can become a locomotive for the economy, which will bring a glimmer of dawn to Hongkong's tourism, retail and catering industries.

The unemployment rate released by the census and Statistics Department last year was 4.6% in November to January this year, when it had increased by 0.5 percentage points. The latest unemployment rate was 5% last month from December to February this year. It returned to 2 to April in 2006. The total unemployment rate rose to 171 thousand and 900, an increase of 14200 compared with the previous announcement.

Total employment fell to 3 million 512 thousand and 500, a decrease of 17500, and the total workforce dropped to 3 million 684 thousand and 500, a decrease of 3200.

However, the underemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.1%, mainly due to the decline in the underemployment rate of the decoration and maintenance industry and the manufacturing industry, which offset the increase in the underemployment rate of the cleaning services, entertainment and Kangle services industries.

The number of underemployment decreased slightly from 200 to 75 thousand and 900.

The relaxation of individual tourism and the economic growth of the Hong Kong economy will lead to a slowdown in the labour market after the lunar new year.

Zhang Jianzong, director of the labor and Welfare Bureau, said yesterday that the unemployment rate continued to rise in the short term, but the increase was hard to estimate.

He pointed out that the amount of export trade in Hongkong recorded a year-on-year decline of 21.8%, a sharp increase compared with 11.4% in December last year. The situation has not been optimistic. The financial tsunami has caused the global economy to decline. Under the impact of the surrounding environment, Hongkong is hard to be independent, and the impact is emerging. However, it is believed that the mainland's further relaxation of individual tourism measures can promote the development of Hongkong's tourism, retail and catering industry, and boost the economy. Hongkong is also a big player.

In the budget year, the government allocated 1 billion 600 million yuan to the labor and Welfare Bureau, creating about 62 thousand jobs and internship opportunities in the next 3 years, together with 60 thousand job opportunities announced earlier by the economic opportunity Committee, which could create about 120 thousand jobs or internship opportunities.

He said that the financial secretary would explain the economic situation in the middle of the year, believing that the government would have a series of measures to protect employment, and stressed that the most important thing at present is "stabilizing finance, supporting enterprises and ensuring employment".

In addition, last month, the labour department posted more than 49 thousand private sector vacancies, down 4.3% from the same period last year. Compared with January this year, the Labour Department increased by about 60%, mainly due to fewer working days in January.

The labour department handles approximately 2500 vacancies per day.

Since the "SARS", Hongkong's economy has been rising steadily, and most of the wage earners have been raised.

Under the impact of the financial tsunami, "ensuring jobs" has become the primary goal of employees.

According to a survey, 68.9% of the surveyed enterprises that implemented the pay review in January took the measure of frozen wages, while only 31.1% of the surveyed enterprises raised their salaries to employees. Last year, all the enterprises surveyed had raised salary measures.

The survey also found that although there was no pay cut for the enterprises surveyed, 4 enterprises will change the bonus system to flexible payment in the coming year.

The survey authorities worry that more enterprises will join the salary freeze in April and July, and even reduce their salaries and layoffs on a large scale.

In January, the Hongkong Institute of human resources management visited 125 companies from 17 different industries, 45 of which employ about 47000 employees. In January, the implementation of this year's pay review was implemented. Only 31.1% of the surveyed companies raised their salaries to employees. The average salary of employees was 0.5%, which was significantly lower than the average 3.9% last year.

In terms of the number of employees, the percentage of employees who got a raise in January this year dropped from 87.8% to 20.5%.

In various industries, the engineering sector has a higher pay rise (1.9%), followed by the hotel industry (1.5%) and the construction industry (1.2%).

Li Jiantang, CO chairman of the academic pay Committee, pointed out that although the industry is a serious unemployment area, the survey shows that some enterprises still maintain good performance.

Among the 45 enterprises with fixed bonus system, 4 have indicated that the fixed bonus system of all employees will be changed to release non fixed bonus in the next year.

In addition, 33 visiting enterprises were determined to issue non fixed bonus during the survey period, and the employees received an average salary of 1.08 months, which was 0.34 months less than that of the same period last year.

Li Jiantang pointed out that the data show that companies are more prudent in salary adjustment and prefer to distribute bonus with company performance and individual employees' performance to reduce expenses.

Li Jiantang said: "for employers and employees, 2009 is an arduous year. For the time being, we can not see any bright spots in the workplace."

He called on business management to maintain good communication with employees and face adversity together.

More shoes and hat investment information, click here to enter the responsibility editor: Wang Xiaonan