Chapter 2
OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR
ORGANIZATION
Employment
The principal industrial occupations in the Colony are cotton spinning, knitting, weaving, shipbuilding and ship repair- ing, printing and publishing, and the manufacture of a number of items including metalware, chemicals (including matches), hand torches, rubber footwear, rattan ware and garments as well as the processing and preserving of different kinds of food. There has been no increase in the general level of unemploy- ment during the year but neither, in many of the established trades such as shipbuilding, knitting, weaving, match and torch making, has there been full employment. Industries that have started up or developed significantly during the year include nylon knitting, silk screen printing, glove making, embroidering and the manufacture of kerosene pressure lamps and cookers, electric irons and kettles, and plastic wares. Electric clocks and gramophone records are also being made but full production has not yet been reached. The distribution of industrial under- takings remains at about one on the Island to each two in Kowloon and the New Territorries, and the following figures for employment in registered and recorded factories and workshops for the past six years show the steady rate of industrial development:
Establishments Males Females Total
Year
1948
1,266
38,783
25,090 63,873
1949
1,426
49,864
31,707 81,571
1950
1,752
57,596
34,390 91,986
1951
1,961
62,192
33,015
95,207
1952
2,088
63,093
35,033
98,126
1953
2,208
65,047
35,729
100,776
25