XN000022-1996-07-12 — Page 12

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Employment and vacancy statistics for March

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According to the figures released today (Friday) by the Census and Statistics Department, employment in all major service sectors increased in March 1996 compared with March 1995. Meanwhile, employment in the manufacturing sector remained on a downtrend, whereas employment at construction sites continued to register a notable year-on-year increase over the same period.

As labour supply became relatively more abundant, vacancies in the manufacturing sector and in the various service sectors surveyed recorded decreases of different magnitudes in March 1996 compared with March 1995. Vacancies at construction sites also dropped, after showing significant year-on-year increases for six consecutive quarters. Nevertheless, there were still around 48,900 vacancies in March 1996 for all major sectors surveyed taken together, somewhat higher than the 41,300 vacancies recorded in December 1995.

In terms of the number of persons engaged, the wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels sector was the largest, employing 1,027,000 persons in March 1996. This was followed by the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector, with an employment of 378,800; the manufacturing sector, 351,500; the community, social and personal services sector, 302,800; and the transport, storage and communications sector, 175,200. Also, there were 68,800 manual workers at construction sites.

In terms of growth rate, employment at construction sites (for manual workers only) continued to show a notable increase, by 7.3% in March 1996 over March 1995. Employment also picked up in the transport, storage and communications sector, rising by 6.4%; the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector, by 4.8%; and the community, social and personal services sector, by 1.9%. Employment in the wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels sector returned to a positive increase of 1.2%. On the other hand, employment in the manufacturing sector fell further, by 11.1%. The respective employment figures are shown in greater detail in Table 1.

As regards the vacancy situation in individual sectors, the wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels sector had the largest number of vacancies, at a level of 21,790 in March 1996. This was followed by the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector, with 9,060 vacancies; the community, social and personal services sector, 7,720; the manufacturing sector, 5,930; and the transport, storage and communications sector, 3,450. Also, there were 940 vacancies for manual workers at construction sites. Job vacancy figures are shown in greater detail in Table 2.