XN000022-1996-04-11 — Page 29

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In terms of growth rate, employment at construction sites (for manual workers only) recorded the fastest increase, by 8.7% in December 1995 over December 1994; followed by the transport, storage and communications sector, by 4.9%; the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector, by 2.3%; and the community, social and personal services sector, by 0.9%. On the other hand, employment in the wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels sector showed a marginal decrease of 0.4%, while that in the manufacturing sector fell by 11.2%. The respective employment figures are shown in greater detail in Table 1.

Vacancies at construction sites continued to record a substantial increase in December 1995 over a year earlier. The marked increases in both employment and vacancies at construction sites reflected the heavy demand for construction workers by the new airport and related projects. However, vacancies in the manufacturing sector and in all major service sectors decreased substantially. Job vacancy figures are shown in greater detail in Table 2.

Of the total of some 41,300 vacancies (other than those in the Civil Service) recorded in December 1995, the majority fell into four major occupation groups, viz. associate professionals; clerks; service workers and shop sales workers; and elementary occupations. They together accounted for over three-quarters of the total number of vacancies in all the major sectors surveyed. Vacancy figures broken down by major occupation group are shown in Table 3. As these figures are compiled starting from June 1995, year-on-year comparisons are not yet available.

The above statistics for December 1995 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 Department. In the former two surveys, some economic activities (e.g. 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 the 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, December 1995 and the Quarterly Report of Employment and Vacancies at Construction Sites, December 1995. They will be available at HK$44 per copy and HK$20 per copy (both exclusive of postage) respectively at the Government Publications Centre, Queensway Government Offices, Low Block, Ground Floor, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong and at the Publications Unit of the Census and Statistics Department on the 19th floor, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong.