TNAG-1610-FCO40-22132-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 107

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Employment

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The problems associated with labour shortages in boom conditions have recently been the subject of wide public discussion. We have long followed the policy of allowing wages and other incomes to be decided generally by the

of the marketplace. This has, over the years, helped to ensure the competitiveness of the export industries on which our economy, as well as the standard of living of our workforce, depends so heavily. It has also given us the low levels of unemployment which must be widely envied in other parts of the world. The other side of this coin is that, when our economy is booming and exports are doing well, there is a tight labour market, with demand for labour exceeding supply. In these conditions the logic of our system means that competition for labour bids up wages. In this way, in times of prosperity, our workers get their fair and

deserved share of the bigger overall cake. Another

consequence is that industrialists invest in new

in new labour saving machinery. This tends to increase productivity and helps to upgrade the quality of our products. It is for these reasons, among others, that the Government have resisted calls for a relaxation of our immigration rules to permit the large scale importation of labour.

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