Chapter 3: Occupations, Wages and Labour Organization
OCCUPATIONS
THE principal sources of employment in Hong Kong and Kowloon are industry, commercial houses connected with the entrepôt trade, agriculture, fishing and the internal distribu- tive trades.
No general employment figures are available, nor has it been feasible since the war, due to rapidly changing condi- tions and varying population heights, for the Government to undertake the compilation of such figures. Employment figures are, however, held for all industrial concerns regis- tered with the Labour Department, and these cover the bulk of the Colony's industrial life.
There is no evidence of any substantial change in the number of people engaged in agriculture and fishing, usually estimated at about 250,000.
The total number of people employed by the Hong Kong Government and by the Armed Services in a civilian non- industrial capacity is in the neighbourhood of 40,000, while an additional 25,000 are engaged in public transport services.
The main factor affecting employment in 1956 was the continued expansion of local industry, with a consequent increase in the number of factories. The number of officially registered and recorded industrial undertakings rose by 394, or 13.5%, to 3,319, while the number of factory workers increased by 13.4% to 146,877. There was a corresponding increase in the number of outworkers in registered under- takings and in the industrial fringe, which consists of concerns, including cottage industries, too small to be liable to registration.
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