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Employment
and six representing employees. In November, employee representatives were elected for the next two-year term of the board.
Employment Services
The Labour Department provides free employment and recruitment services to job-seekers and employers through 13 job centres, three recruitment centres for the catering, retail and construction industries, a Telephone Employment Service Centre and a Job Vacancy Processing Centre. Round-the-clock employment services are available through the Interactive Employment Service website and mobile application.
The department organises large-scale, district-based and thematic job fairs. It offers targeted help through the Employment Programme for the Elderly and Middle-aged, Work Trial Scheme, Work Orientation and Placement Scheme for job-seekers with disabilities, Youth Employment and Training Programme, and Youth Employment Start. For major closure or retrenchment cases, it will set up a telephone hotline and special counters at job centres to provide priority job referral services for affected workers.
In 2018, the department registered 38,567 job-seekers and made over 136,000 job placements. It recorded 1,468,394 private-sector vacancies, 3.5 per cent more than in 2017.
Employment Programme for the Elderly and Middle-aged
To further encourage employers to hire elderly job-seekers and provide them with on-the-job training, the Labour Department enhanced the Employment Programme for the Middle-aged on 1 September and renamed it the Employment Programme for the Elderly and Middle-aged. Employers engaging job-seekers aged 60 or above who are unemployed or have left the workforce receive a monthly training allowance of up to $4,000 per employee for six to 12 months. Those who engage unemployed job-seekers aged 40 to 59 get the prevailing rate of up to $3,000 per month for three to six months. This programme recorded 2,574 placements in 2018.
Work Trial Scheme
Work trials are conducted for people with difficulties in finding jobs. Each participant who completes a one-month work trial receives $7,600 from the department, of which $500 is paid by the organisation in which the participant served. In 2018, 152 people took part in the trials.
Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme
This scheme helps low-income earners reduce their cost of travelling to and from work and encourages them to secure and stay in employment. In 2018, 37,072 applicants received the subsidy. On 1 April, the household-based application arrangement of the scheme was abolished upon the implementation of the Working Family Allowance Scheme.
People with Disabilities
The department helps people with disabilities who are fit for open employment to seek jobs. It provides free employment counselling and placement services to people who are formerly mentally ill or have hearing or visual impairment, physical handicap, chronic illness, autism
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