ENG-1979 — Page 76

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Employment

THE total employed population recorded in the Labour Force Survey held in September, 1979, was 2,119,900, comprising 1,380,000 males and 739,900 females. The Labour Force Survey is a sampled household survey. The distribution was: agriculture and fishing, mining and quarrying, 26,600; manufacturing, 911,900; electricity, gas and water, 10,900; construc- tion, 142,800; wholesale and retail trade, and restaurants and hotels, 426,000; transport, storage and communications, 148,800; financing, insurance, real estate and business services, 91,100; community, social and personal services, 361,400; and unclassifiable activities, 500.

The Manufacturing Employment Survey held in December, 1979, recorded a total of 870,898 people engaged in 42,282 establishments. The Manufacturing Employment Survey is an establishment survey. It covers working proprietors and partners, employees receiving pay, and unpaid family workers affiliated to business organisations, but excludes the self- employed, out-workers, and other unpaid workers who are included in the household-type survey. Some 378,095 people – the largest share of the manufacturing work-force were engaged in the textile and wearing apparel industries. The electrical industry and the plastics industry were the next two largest employers. Details of the distribution of manufacturing establishments, and of the numbers of people engaged in them, are given in Appendices 13 and 14.

The bulk of the manufacturing work-force is concentrated in the urban areas of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon. But industrial development in the New Terri- tories is increasing and more than one-quarter of the total manufacturing work-force now works there.

Labour Legislation

The wages of Hong Kong's industrial workers continued to increase during 1979. Nine items of labour legislation were enacted to provide for higher standards in the safety, health and welfare of workers. Since 1969, a total of 152 items of labour legislation have been enacted. Recent legislation includes the widening of the scope of the Employment Ordinance by raising the wage ceiling applicable to non-manual workers from $2,000 to $3,500 a month; extending the minimum age of employment of 14 to the non-industrial sector from Sep- tember, 1979; and raising the minimum age of employment from 14 to 15 with effect from September, 1980. Another amendment to the Employment Ordinance has clarified the right to seven days' paid annual leave to ensure that workers are granted the leave.

Additional safety measures were provided by the amendments to the Boilers and Pressure Receivers Regulations and the Dangerous Goods Regulations.

Further improvements to the Workmen's Compensation Ordinance, the Apprenticeship Ordinance and the Employment Ordinance, as well as further industrial safety regulations, were under consideration at the end of the year.