TNAG-1795-FCO40-2555-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-repatriation--including-Opera-1988 — Page 4

Another solution is to increase wages to attract labour into the industry. Until recently wages for construction labour have tended to lag behind wages generally. From December 1982 to December 1986 the construction labour wage index increased in money terms by 22% compared with 31% for wages generally (or 6% in real terms). There has been a marked change this year with the construction index increasing from June 1986 to June 1987 by 17% compared with 9% for wages generally. The index for construction wages in September 1987 was 28% above the figure for September 1986 (no statistics are available yet for wages generally). As for

for attracting more labour into the industry, the decline in employment since 1981 probably means that there are craftsmen who have left the construction industry and might be attracted back if wages were

high enough. Also, the Construction Industry Training

Authority has increased the places available for people wanting to learn semi-skilled trades, but is having difficulty recruiting sufficient numbers of trainees.

Assessment

If

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Although it has proved difficult to measure the shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry, the recent increases in wages indicate that some skills are short, particularly masons, steelbenders, carpenters and joiners, terrazzo and granolithic workers and pneumatic drillers. But there is little evidence to show that the shortage is sufficient to justify the serious step of importing labour. experience with Government contracts is anything to go by, the effect of the shortage has been small in terms of delay. What probably have been affected significantly are the profits of the construction companies by the increases in

wages. To import the skills now would have the effect of going completely against the basic reasoning behind the present policy on importing labour. It would slow down increases in wages in a sector where increases in recent years have been well behind the increases in wages generally.

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Another factor is the extent of the present demands on the construction industry and the length of time they are likely to continue. On the former such indications as there are show that the demands could be less heavy than they were in 1981. At the rate so far this year, the Buildings Ordinance Office is likely to allow work to start in 1987 involving 3.4 million square metres, compared with 4.1 million in 1981. These statistics include Housing Authority projects but not the Government's, and do not take into account civil engineering projects. Nor do they indicate the length of time needed to build the projects or their technical complexity. As regards the length of time demands are likely to last, the recent fall

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