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Data compiled by Career Times Research Team
The number of advertised job vacancies dropped to 1061 in the week ending 29 December 2002. This represents a 46.7 percent decrease from the previous week and a 70.9 percent drop from last year's peak after the Chinese New Year when there were 3,642 jobs advertised.
During the year, the job market held quite steady. Until mid-August the number of advertised jobs remained over 3,000 per week and until mid-November figures remained over 2,500.
A decrease in December figures had been expected, as hiring is generally slow between Christmas and the Chinese New Year. In comparison, in the first week of January last year the figure stood at 2,023, dropping to 573 in the week of the Chinese New Year.
With the official unemployment figures down to 7.1 percent from a peak of 7.8 percent, experts predict the job market will remain stable in 2003 although radical improvement over the 2002 figures is not likely.
"The job market is forecast to stay steady this year," said Alan Au-yeung, consultant at Levin Human Resources Development Ltd, adding that the stability is underpinned by the improving performance of external trade industries including tourism, exports and logistics, all of which are fundamental to Hong Kong's economic prosperity.
Work on the Hong Kong Disneyland project, which will begin early this year, is likely to create more jobs in the construction industry he said, adding, "Hong Kong is pushing hard for a cross-delta bridge connecting three neighbouring cities [Macau, Hong Kong, and Zhuhai]. Once Guangdong gives the green light to this project, it will spark optimism across the region."
Annie Cheung, operational account manager of international consultants Drake Overload Ltd., expressed full confidence in the job market. The fall in the latest unemployment rate heralds "a minor pickup in the economy," she said. Increases in job supply, she added, would be "most evident in industries such as banking and insurance," in which companies are expected to hire extra frontline staff to support their expansion.
Despite a slowdown in hiring over the past six months, experts predict that the insurance industry will prolong its search for talent this year for both front- and back-office positions. MassMutual Asia Ltd.'s senior vice president of marketing support Jeanne Sau explained: "The larger the sales force, the greater the likelihood a company can expand its client base through acquiring business contacts." She expects insurance companies to recruit additional qualified agents to capture market share as they continue to diversify into financial planning services.
Partly hinging on the increasing number of Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong, job opportunities are expected to remain steady this year in the hotel and tourism industries. Tourism in Hong Kong is predicted to peak in 2005 with Chinese tourists increasingly flooding across the border as Beijing continues to loosen its cross-border restrictions and scrap tourist quotas, according to Uris Fong, vice president of sales and marketing with the Henderson-Miramar Hotel Management Co. Ltd. This will create jobs in the tourism industry, he said, adding: "I'm confident about the future."
Job opportunities in trade and manufacturing look much less promising. Most job vacancies available in the local industry are related to logistics and administration, according to Godfrey Lin, regional manager of Rockwell Automation. The rest have been shifted to coastal mainland cities, in particular Dongguan and Shenzhen, taking advantage of the low-cost labour there.
"China has truly become the workshop of the world," said Mr Lin. "But, Hong Kong still plays a big part in providing jobs in areas such as logistics, packaging, and management."
The IT and telecommunications industries saw a slowdown in hiring last year, mainly affecting fresh IT graduates and experienced IT staff without formal qualifications.
Edwin Tam, director of InfoTech Services (Hong Kong) Ltd. said, "More middle to top-level IT sales and marketing professionals are serving the China market, particularly in Shanghai and Beijing, and many are [employed by] multinational computer/telecom vendors and high-tech companies. But few IT technical professionals have relocated to the Mainland."
The property industry is not likely to see an increase in the number of jobs this year due to excessive property supply and stiff competition. "The number [of openings] will likely stay the same next year," commented Willy Liu, director of Ricacorp Properties Ltd.
The government's spiralling budget deficit may well translate into a further cut in pay and size of the civil service. A decision on salary cuts is expected this month. The number of civil servants in 2000 totalled 183,400. By the end of September last year, this had dropped to 172,019. Some experts suggest that the government is pushing for voluntary retirement as a means of trimming the headcount, and would rather contract out services.
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Taken from Career Times 2003/01/10
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