CONFIDENTIA!
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industry. This is despite some fairly large redundancies in the textile industry recently, particularly in the weaving section, and these are likely to continue on present evidence. The labour market was tightest in the building and construction industry, where contractors engaged in the mass transit railway, Government housing and private building projects were competing for workers, both skilled and unskilled. At the end of 1977, 63,010 workers were employed in the building and construction industry, representing an increase of 29% over the previous year. The increase in wage rates in this industry continued to be the highest: 20% during 1977 in nominal terms. Since the number now employed is not greatly in excess of that six or seven years ago, this reflects a remarkable improvement in the productivity in this industry.
4.
Consistent with the overall tight labour market, wage rates in the manufacturing sector continued to increase in 1977 and in the first half of 1978, though at a slightly lower rate than in 1976.
5.
The unemployment figure taken from the Labour Force Survey in March 1978 is a remarkable 3%. This compares favourably with previous figures:
September 1975
9.1%
March 1976
5.6%
September 1976
4.6%
March 1977
4.5%
September 1977
4.1%
(For more detailed analysis of the labour market, please see Bi-monthly Economic Reports forwarded to the FCO regularly).
Industrial Action
6.
Better wages and greater employment security seem to have made Hong Kong workers more sensitive to grievances or more alert to make use of them to obtain better wages and benefits and more prone to take industrial action. Of the 145 trade disputes which occurred during 1977, 38 resulted in stoppages representing a loss of 10,814 working days. The Mass Transit Railway Project, which up to the end of 1976 had experienced only two disputes but no stoppages of work, was involved in 8 disputes with 6 stoppages in 1977.
CONFIDENTIAL
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