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Chapter 5
EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTION
28.
The labour force
57.
The Census and Statistics Department estimated that the
unemployment rate in September 1976 was 4.6% compared with 9.1% and 5.6%
recorded respectively in the September 1975 and March 1976 Labour Force
Sample Surveys. The labour force was, towards the latter half of 1976,
probably as fully employed as it could be, for 4.6% is likely to be close
to the level of "structural unemployment" (that is unemployment resulting
from the difference in the type of worker demanded and the type of worker
available). In support of this contention, in 1971 when the economy
was progressing with a very rapid underlying trend growth, the unemployment
rate, as derived from the 1971 Foulation Census, was about 4.4%. It is
also borne out by the vacancy position referred to in paragraph 62 below.
Table 28
58.
Associated with the rapid drop in the unemployment rate between
September 1975 and September 1976 was a 3.2% decrease in the size of the
labour force. The labour force participation rate (the proportion which
the number of persons from 14 u wards who are working or unemployed bears
to the total number of ersons aged 14 and over) also decreased from 64.2%
in September 1975 to 62.4, in March 1976 and to 61.03 in September 1976.
These movements indicated that the rapid recovery of the economy experienced
in the latter half of 1975 and in 1976 had brought about significant
improvement in household incomes so that some housewives and teenagers
needed no longer to work. A comparison of labour force participation
rates analysed by age and by sex between Se tember 1975 and March 1976
Corresponding figures from the 1976 Population By-Census
confirmed this*.
are not yet available for comparison.
*
See Half-yearly Economic Report 1975.
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