General.
OCCUPATIONS WAGES & LABOUR
Chapter 2
dealt with Apart from fishing and farming, which are elsewhere in this report, the major part of the Hong Kong population is engaged in commercial pursuits and in employment. such as stevedoring, shipbuilding and repairing, etc., ancillary to the Colony's position as a great port and entrepôt for South China.
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the
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difficult With a constantly fluctuating population it is to estimate the proportionate distribution of employment, but it is possible to reach an approximation of the numbers employed in the three main groups of industrial undertakings. Thus it has been estimated, from returns compiled by the managements concerned, that in September, 1948 in engineering (including shipbuilding), metal and chemical industries approximately 23,000 persons were engaged. This represents a decrease of about 1,500 on last year's employment figure for this group. Within the group there has been very big decline in employment in the shipbuilding industry, where the figures declined during the first nine months from 16,900 to approximately 10,000, but this has been balanced by a gain in employment in light metal industries. There is reason to believe that since September, employment in the shipbuilding industry is again on the up-grade. In the same month there were employed in public utility companies nearly 3,000 persons; and in other manufacturing industries It might approximately 32,500, a small increase over 1947. have been expected that employment in the latter group would have increased substantially more as a result of the setting up of a number of new factories by employers from Shanghai and Canton and the establishment in Hong Kong of several new industries. The comparatively small increase is probably due to unsettled conditions in China and exchange restrictions driving smaller manufacturers out of business.
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