ENG-1994 — Page 156

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EMPLOYMENT

THE proposed mandatory Old-age Pension Scheme received centre-stage attention in the second half of the year.

Details of the scheme, to be financed by both employers and the workforce, together with a significant commitment of public funds, were released by the government for public consultation in July. A total of 6 665 submissions had been received when the consultation period ended on October 31. The Chinese Government was consulted through the Sino- British Joint Liaison Group.

During the year, there was continued growth in employment in the various services sectors, but employment in the manufacturing sector declined further. This mainly reflected the continued re-orientation of the economy towards services, along with the relocation of industrial processes to China.

Overall, the labour force grew moderately. In the third quarter, it had grown by 3.6 per cent compared to the corresponding period of 1993. The territory's labour force stood at three million, of whom 63 per cent were male and 37 per cent were female.

With a buoyant economy, unemployment and underemployment remained low, at 2.3 per cent and 1.1 per cent, respectively, of the labour force.

Of the employed, the majority, or 75.9 per cent, were engaged in the services sectors— 32.1 in wholesale, retail, import and export trades, restaurants and hotels; 12.1 per cent in transport, storage and communications services; 11.4 per cent in financing, insurance, real estate and business services; and 20.3 per cent in community, social and personal services. About 15.3 per cent were working in the manufacturing sector.

As a result of the expansion during the past decade, establishments in the services sector now employ four times as many workers as the manufacturing sector. In September, there were 1 869 947 persons employed in the services sector (not including most of the self- employed and those engaged in the provision of personal services), an increase of 8.5 per cent over the corresponding figure in 1993. In contrast, there were only 438 382 persons employed in the manufacturing sector (excluding outworkers), a decrease of 13.7 per cent compared to a year ago. With this continuing shift in employment, many manufacturing workers have been displaced from their jobs. The Employees Retraining Board, set up in 1992 to retrain affected workers, exceeded its retraining target by 23 000 at the end of 1994. As a result, the board has increased its target for the period up to August 1995 from 25 000 to 50 000 workers.

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