XN000022-1996-03-06 — Page 34

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The total supply of labour increased by over three per cent in each of the last two years. More emigrants returned from overseas and more immigrants arrived from China. Also, there has been a larger proportion of women entering the workforce.

Total employment also increased healthily in 1995. But at two per cent, the rise was not sufficient to keep pace with the additional labour supply.

Consequently, the unemployment rate rose to 3.5 per cent at the end of the year.

He stressed that the employment situation, low though our rate is by international standards was a matter that the Government cannot be complacent about.

He said in the latter part of the year, the private sector was still reporting 50,000 vacancies and that the problem seemed to be less a lack of jobs than a mismatch between the skills on offer by the unemployed and the skills required by potential employers.

On the residential property market, Mr Tsang believed that. following the successful implementation of the measures devised by the 1994 Task Force, the property market, which continued to consolidate during 1995, had stabilised.

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He said by the end of the year, average prices for residential flats were 24 per cent lower than the peak levels reached in the early part of 1994.

Although prices were some 20 per cent above the levels seen at the end of 1992, they were still lower in real terms than three years earlier, Mr Tsang however noted that the ground had been laid for the healthy development of the market in the future as flats had become generally more affordable to home-buyers, and speculation had subsided.

Turning to the financial markets last year, Mr Tsang noted that Hong Kong performed well in this aspect of economic activities as evidenced by the fact that: The stock market was the best performing in the region, with a 23 per cent increase in the Hang Seng Index for the year.

The futures market recorded over five million contracts for the year, an all-time high, although this was a year of reverses for overseas futures markets generally.