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sessional primary schools (19,440 places and 495 teachers) and 14 secondary schools (16,240 places and 616 teachers). The capital cost at current prices of this number of schools is about $262 million, and the recurrent costs $94 million p.a. Assuming that it would be possible to meet all the above requirements on time, the most noticeable effect would be substantial deferrment in planned improvements in student/ teacher ratios in Hong Kong.
Employment
The current wave of immigration from China has
The labour had a significant impact on the labour market. force grew at the rate of 6 percent p.a. in 1978 and 1979, compared with 3 percent p.a. during the period 1971-1977. The size of the labour force at the end of 1979 was 2.3 million.
This sudden increase in the supply of labour throws a shadow over the long term prospects for economic and income growth in two ways. As the bargaining power of local workers for better terms of employment is weakened, the potential for growth of individual incomes is reduced.
Although the dilution
of the labour market at a time of generally full employment may be beneficial to some employers in the short term, it is bad in the long term because it tends to remove the incentive for higher productivity and for movement into more sophisticated and capital 'intensive production.
The actual size of the present labour force raises the possibility of greater potential unemployment problems, should
The seasonally there be a major downturn in the economy
*
adjusted unemployment rate for the economy as a whole increased from 2.8 percent in September 1979 to 3.2 percent in March 1980.
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