ENG-1995 — Page 149

8 EMPLOYMENT

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THE Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance was enacted in July 1995, giving the legislative framework for a mandatory, privately managed provident funds system. Employment in all major service sectors continued to grow during the year but declined further in the manufacturing sector as the structural shift in manpower resources continued.

In the third quarter of 1995, the labour force had grown by four per cent compared with the corresponding period of 1994. The territory's total labour force stood at 3.1 million, of whom 62 per cent were male and 38 per cent were female. The unemployment rate for the third quarter 1995 was 3.5 per cent while the under- employment rate was 2.5 per cent, compared with 2.3 per cent and 1.1 per cent -respectively a year ago.

The majority of the employed, 77 per cent, were engaged in the service sectors 32.3 per cent in wholesale, retail and import and export trades, restaurants and hotels; 11.8 per cent in transport, storage and communication services; 12.2 per cent in financing, insurance, real estate and business services; and 20.7 per cent in community, social and personal services. About 13.3 per cent worked in the manufacturing sector. Structural shifts in employment during the past decade mean establishments in the service sectors now employ more than four times as many workers as the manufacturing sector. In September 1995, 1 874 455 persons worked in the various service sectors (not including most of the self-employed and those engaged in the provision of personal services), an increase of 0.2 per cent over the corresponding figure in 1994. Only 386 106 persons worked in the manufacturing sector (excluding outworkers), a drop of 11.9 per cent compared with a year ago.

With this continuing shift in employment, many manufacturing workers have been displaced. The Employees Retraining Board, set up in 1992 to retrain affected workers, had put 105 947 workers through its retraining programmes by the end of the year. In April 1995, a new Job Matching Programme was launched to provide a job-matching service to displaced workers aged over 30.

In terms of employment, the import and export trade is the largest industry group in the service sector, employing 535 793 persons in September. Other major service industry groups include the retail trade, restaurants and business services, which employed 196 072, 182 057 and 148 225 persons, respectively.

Despite declining employment, the clothing industry remains the largest manu- facturing industry, employing 111 539 persons in September. Establishments in the printing and publishing industry and the electronics industry are the next two largest groups of employers in manufacturing, employing 44 790 and 44 078 persons,