EMPLOYMENT
122
of whom 60.7 per cent were male and 39.3 per cent female. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the third quarter of 1998 was 5 per cent while the underemployment rate was 2.7 per cent, compared with 2.2 per cent and 1.0 per cent respectively a year earlier.
Of those employed, the majority (80 per cent) were engaged in the service sectors 31.7 per cent in wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels; 11.9 per cent in transport, storage and communications; 13.4 per cent in financing, insurance, real estate and business services; and 22.9 per cent in community, social and personal services. About 8.5 per cent worked in the manufacturing sector.
A structural shift during the past decade has meant establishments in the service sectors now employ seven times as many workers as the manufacturing sector. In September 1998, 1 838 046 persons were engaged in establishments in the various service sectors (not including most of the self-employed and those engaged in the provision of personal services), a decrease of 5 per cent over the corresponding figure in 1997. Only 257 042 persons were engaged in manufacturing sector establishments. (excluding outworkers), a decrease of 16.9 per cent compared with a year earlier.
With this continuing shift in employment, many manufacturing workers have been displaced. The Employees Retraining Board (ERB), was set up in 1992 to help workers displaced from the manufacturing sector to rejoin the workforce. Since its inception, the ERB has provided 273 510 training places through its various retaining programmes.
The import and export trade was the largest employer in the service sectors, with 469 654 workers in September 1998. Other major service industry groups include the retail trade, restaurants and business services, which had 189 910, 176 471 and 164 359 employees respectively.
Despite declining employment, the clothing industry remained the largest manufacturing industry, employing 62 261 persons in September 1998. Establishments in the printing and publishing industry and the electronics industry were the next two largest groups of employers in manufacturing, employing 44 362 and 24 769 persons respectively. Details of the distribution of establishments and persons engaged by selected major industry group are shown at Appendices 23 and 24 respectively.
Wages
Wage rates are calculated on a time basis, either daily or monthly, or on an incentive basis according to the volume of work performed. The average wage rate for employees up to the supervisory level, including daily-rated and monthly-rated employees, increased by 2.2 per cent in money terms between September 1997 and September 1998. After discounting for changes in consumer prices, the average wage rate increased by 0.1 per cent in real terms.
In September 1998, the average monthly wage rate for the supervisory, technical, clerical and miscellaneous non-production workers in the wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels sector was $11,833. Based on the wage indices, the average wage rate for this group increased by 1.3 per cent in money terms, or an increase of 1 per cent in real terms, compared with the same period of 1997.
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