ENG-1981 — Page 35

14

REVIEW

cent, giving an annual average increase of 6.3 per cent. The increase in real income over the past five years was 39 per cent or 7.4 per cent per year.

Looking to the future, if the existing trend continues, there would be a 27 per cent increase in average real household income over the next five years and a 51 per cent increase in 10 years, or 4.2 per cent a year. All this, in the face of having in the last decade to create 857 000 new jobs, gives some idea of the expansion of the Hong Kong economy, where small is beautiful, where direction is minimal and productivity is left largely to labour's and management's own drive for self-betterment.

The census recorded similar increases in the earnings from employment over the last five years among the high percentage of working population. The overall median income from main employment increased from $738 to $1,516. Discounting the 50 per cent increase in consumer prices between 1976 and 1981, the real income from employment has risen by 37 per cent, or an annual average increase of 7.1 per cent. And the figures are probably under-estimates of reality because many people are wary about disclosing their earnings to census enumerators. For instance, enumerators found only two per cent admitted to being 'moonlighters'.

A crude comparison of the income of Hong Kong's population with other countries can be made by studying the gross domestic product per employed person. Singapore at US$9,800 is only slightly ahead of Hong Kong at US$9,500, though Singapore has begun its second industrial revolution to reduce employment in intensive labour industries and to rely more heavily on management to upgrade productivity with fewer and more highly- skilled workers on the factory floor. Japan, at US$19,000 has twice Hong Kong's per capita income, though the gap would be narrower than the figures suggest because the levels are different. Only 300 Hong Kong families were last year drawing public assistance because the breadwinner was unemployed, and many of them could be genuinely unemployable.

Labour

The total economically active population aged 15 and over was 1 618 982 in 1971, and 2 503 804 by 1981. The increase in labour force was 884 822 between 1971 and 1981, an annual rate of increase of 4.5 per cent. The increase in labour force has been a result of the changing age-sex structure of the population, a higher degree of participation within the labour force as well as an increase in population through migration in recent years. This is expected to stabilise around 70 per cent. Projection into the next 10 years suggests a further growth in the labour force to 2 747 000 by 1986, and to 2 933 000 by 1991. This represents an annual average rate of increase of 1.5 per cent, and that will require a lot of economic expansion to absorb, will possibly create keener demand for jobs and will certainly necessitate more facilities for training the work force.

Over the past 10 years there has been a gradual decrease in the proportion of working population in manufacturing, agriculture and fishing, but an overall increase in the wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels, construction, financing, insurance, etc. Manufacturing, as a proportion of the total work force, has declined from 47 per cent in 1971 to 41.2 in 1981. But the number of people employed in manufacturing has increased and it is still the most significant industry. Clothing is its biggest component, employing 23.3 per cent of the work force in 1971 but 29.6 per cent in 1981. Machinery increased in the same period from 10.3 to 18.2 per cent and metal products from 10.3 to 13.1 per cent. Textiles declined from 20.9 to 10.8 per cent and footwear from 14.3 to 11.9 per cent.

By occupation, the major changes in the structure of the workforce have been increased in the proportions of professional, technical and clerical workers as well as service workers.