Chapter 3: Occupations, Wages and Labour Organization
OCCUPATIONS
THE principal sources of employment in Hong Kong are industry, commercial houses connected with the entrepôt trade, agriculture, fishing and the internal distributive trades.
No general employment figures are available, nor has it been feasible since the war, because of rapidly changing conditions, for the Government to undertake the compilation of such figures. Employment figures are, however, held for all industrial concerns registered or recorded* with the Labour Department, and these cover the bulk of the Colony's industries.
The number of persons engaged in agriculture and fishing is estimated to be slightly less than 275,000. The total number of persons employed by the Hong Kong Government was slightly over 40,000, while an additional 21,000 were engaged in the public transport services. An estimated 120,000 workers were employed in building and engineering construction. During the year the number of persons employed in a civilian capacity by the Armed Services fell by over 3,000. This decrease followed from the decision in 1957 to close down H.M. Dockyard in a phased opera- tion extending over two years, and to make reductions in the civilian establishments in the Colony of the Army and R.A.F.
The main factor affecting employment continued to be, as for several years past, industrial expansion, but this was limited during the year by trading restrictions encountered by local manu- facturers in various parts of Asia and Africa, by the general trade recession in the middle of the year, and by the continued shortage of suitable industrial sites, particularly for small concerns. Despite these unfavourable factors the number of registered industrial undertakings rose by 295 to 2,705. An additional 773 undertakings
*This term is explained later in the chapter under Factory Inspection and Registration.