ENG-1960 — Page 68

EMPLOYMENT

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by the end of the year 90 factories were in operation in this area and plans for 29 others had been approved.

Tables at Appendix I show the development of industry by the main industrial groups and by selected industries within certain groups.

Unemployment. The lack of complete statistics of the working population debars anything but estimates of unemployment and under-employment made on the broadest basis. Although the expansion of industrial labour during 1960 was not on the large scale recorded in the previous year, many industries, especially the textile industries and those on the outskirts of urban areas, found it hard to recruit the type of worker which they preferred in the earlier part of the year. The position became easier later when the garment industry had grown much smaller.

The present general shortage of housing and, to a lesser extent, the problems of schooling discourage families from moving out of the districts where they are already established. The fairly high cost of transport in relation to daily earnings also discourages long journeys to work, so it is usual for a large proportion of factory labour to live near-by. Labour is not as mobile as might be imagined in the confined area of this Colony and local shortages of labour do occur as a result. Although most skilled workers and many unskilled workers have been absorbed in the expanding economy, much under-employment is believed to exist among the unskilled. The shortage of skilled labour among the younger workers is likely to continue.

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Migration for employment. Many countries refuse to admit or severely restrict the entry of Chinese. Consequently, few find employment overseas except in a small group of territories which permits the recruitment of Chinese workers from Hong Kong. This group includes North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak, which accept large numbers of skilled and semi-skilled workers for development projects, and Nauru and the Ocean Islands for which the British Phosphate Commission has for many years recruited labour especially from the villages in the New Territories. Singapore also permits the recruitment of Hong Kong fishermen. Enamelware manufacturers continued to send their skilled hands to associated factories in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia and also sent some, for the first time, to Ghana. Negotiations