ENG-1961 — Page 64

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EMPLOYMENT

an increase over the previous year. But the rise was uneven and, at the beginning of 1961, several sections of the industry, especially cotton weaving and the manufacture of garments, stood off sub- stantial numbers of their workers. The plastic flower industry showed similar fluctuations. At the beginning of the year, difficulties over the export of its products to the United States resulted in this industry standing off more than 1,200 of its workers, but it recovered in response to an increased demand to become the third most important industry. In the aggregate, the industrial labour force fell by more than 4,500 in the first three months of the year, but a quick recovery raised the number in industrial employment to a record total by the end of June. With 42,517 workers, the manufacture of wearing apparel remained the second biggest source of employment. Twenty eight thousand and twenty six workers were employed in manufacturing metalware and the manufacture and repair of transport equipment (includ- ing shipbuilding, repairing and breaking) absorbed some 16,015 workers.

In spite of the difficulty of finding premises, especially those suitable for small industrial concerns, the number of registered or recorded factories increased by 760 to 6,359. Improved adminis- tration by a larger inspectorate would account for a proportion of this expansion but there was undoubtedly a real increase in the number of qualifying factories. Reclaimed land in Kwun Tong provided the greatest number of new industrial sites but Tsuen Wan, in the New Territories, grew in importance as an industrial area, and sites at Yau Tong Bay were found for boat yards and timber mills.

Tables at Appendix I show development in the main industrial groups and in selected industries.

Unemployment. At the time of the 1961 Census there were some 20,000 people reporting themselves as unemployed or seeking their first employment. (See Chapter 1). The census also confirmed that the number of people between 15 and 25 years of age was dispro- portionately low and provided a reminder that young workers will be hard to recruit for the next five years. Periodic local shortages of labour occurred, especially in industries established in outlying districts where a shortage of housing and schools, and transport difficulties tended to aggravate the problem. Although