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In September 1996, vacancies in the craft and related workers, plant and machine operators and assemblers, and clerks categories continued to decline over a year earlier, albeit at a more moderate rate than in June 1996. They fell by 24%, 12.3% and 10.2% respectively over a year earlier. Vacancies in the managerial and administrative occupation category also recorded a decline of 4%. But vacancies in the professionals, associate professionals, as well as the service workers and shop sales workers categories all showed increases, by 6.1%, 19.4% and 8.2% respectively over a year earlier. Vacancies in the elementary occupation category also bottomed out to show only a marginal decline of 0.4% over the same periods of comparison.
Vacancy figures broken down by major occupation group are shown in Table 3.
The above statistics for September 1996 were derived from the Quarterly Survey of Employment and Vacancies, the Supplementary Survey of Job Vacancies and the Quarterly Employment Survey of Construction Sites conducted by the Census and Statistics Department.
In the former two surveys, some economic activities (for example, those where self-employment are predominant, such as taxi operators, hawkers and freelance authors) are not covered and hence the respective employment and vacancy figures relate only to those selected industries included in the surveys. In the latter survey on construction sites, employment and vacancy figures relate to manual workers only.
Detailed breakdowns of the above statistics are available from the Quarterly Report of Employment, Vacancies and Payroll Statistics, September 1996 and the Quarterly Report of Employment and Vacancies at Construction Sites, September 1996. They will be available at $48 and $19 per copy (both exclusive of postage) respectively at the Government Publications Centre, Queensway Government Offices, Low Block, ground floor, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong and the Publications Unit of the Census and Statistics Department, 19th floor, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
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