3
Employment
OCCUPATIONS
EXCEPT for those in the civil service or working in industrial undertakings registered or recorded by the Labour Department, no comprehensive employment statistics are normally collected by Government, but precise information will be available when the final report of the population census is published in 1962. The Census, however, has already shown that in March there were 1,190,937 people engaged in some form of employment. These figures included 788,384 permanent in-workers(1), 137,318 casual or seasonal in-workers, 123,829 who are self-employed and 57,424 employers. The remaining workers are apprentices or trainees, unpaid family helpers, workers on commission or out-workers(2). About 82,000 people are directly engaged in agriculture and fishing and, including dependants, more than 80,000 people rely on fishing for their livelihood, and some 250,000 on agriculture. It is-known that 271,729 are employed in industry and approximately 180,000 in building and engineering construction. There are 49,422 em- ployees of the Hong Kong Government.
The recorded increase in the industrial labour force, compared with that in 1960, owes less to actual expansion than to the fact that proprietors of registered and recorded factories, who previ- ously included only manual workers in their returns were asked, for the first time, to state the total number of employees. It is certain, however, that there was considerable expansion in the manual labour force during the year.
The manufacture of textiles continued to absorb the greatest number of workers and its total of 68,825 employees represented
(1) 'in-worker' does not mean one who works indoors, but does mean an employee who works in or at his employer's place, be it shop, factory, building site, farm or boat.
(2) conversely, an 'out-worker' means anyone who can take his work
home or wherever he pleases.
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