ENG-2006 — Page 83

Chart 11

Total labour force and total employment (year-on-year rate of change)

Per cent

4

3

2

1

Total

labour force

0

-1

-2

Total employment

-3

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2002

2003

2004 ↓ 2005 1 2006

The Economy ❘ 55

Employment growth continued to outstrip the labour force growth throughout 2006.

By comparison, job vacancies in the private sector rose by 5.7 per cent in December 2006 over the same period in 2005. Although the growth was slower than that seen in the preceding two years, this was partly due to the increased take-up of jobs during 2006. When job vacancies are matched against the unemployment figures, the overall ratio showed an increase to 25 job openings for every 100 job seekers in December 2006, from around 20 a year earlier. While the ratio for lower-skilled jobs rose from 16 to 20, that for higher-skilled jobs went up from 54 to 73. There are currently more openings for higher-skilled workers, as reflected in the 7.0 per cent increase in vacancies in the higher-skilled sector and the 4.8 per cent fall in the lower-skilled field. In addition, figures showed a significant proportion of the vacancies occurring in 2006 was for jobs in the services sector, especially the import and export trades, restaurants, business services and financing.

Notwithstanding a greater demand for workers, wage increases remained moderate. Labour earnings in the private sector rose by 2.4 per cent in money terms or 0.4 per cent in real terms in 2006 compared to a year earlier. This modest overall movement however concealed fairly wide variations among different economic sectors and occupations. For instance, pay rises in the finance, insurance, real estate and business services sectors were relatively higher with employees in these fields. receiving average pay rises of 5.6 per cent in money terms, compared with the increases for workers in the restaurant and hotels, transport, storage and communications, and manufacturing sectors which were 2.6, 2.1 and 1.4 per cent respectively (Chart 12).