ENG-2010 — Page 170

124 | Employment

working group under the board to deal with applications for labour importation under the Supplementary Labour Scheme.

Employment Services

The Labour Department provides a wide range of free employment and recruitment services to job seekers and employers through a network of 12 job centres, two recruitment centres respectively for the catering and retail industries, a Telephone Employment Service Centre, a Central Recruitment Unit and a Job Vacancy Processing Centre. Round-the-clock employment services are provided through the Interactive Employment Services (IES) website (www.jobs.gov.hk), which recorded over 0.8 billion page views in 2010, or an average page view of 2.36 million per day.

The department also organises large-scale and district-based job fairs to help job seekers find jobs and employers to recruit staff. For major closure or redundancy cases, the department runs a hotline for enquiries and special counters at job centres to provide priority referral and job matching services to retrenched employees.

In 2010, a total of 135 236 job seekers registered with the Labour Department. The department also posted 752 323 private sector vacancies in the year, an all-time high figure and an increase of 27.6 per cent when compared with 2009. A job placement figure of 149 609 was achieved in 2010, or 23.8 per cent higher than in 2009.

Employment Programme for the Middle-aged

Under the programme, employers who engage eligible middle-aged people and provide them with on-the-job training are given a training allowance of $2,000 per month per trainee for up to three months by the Government. The subsidy period. may be extended to a maximum of six months for deserving cases. In 2010, a total of 3 930 middle-aged job seekers were employed under the programme.

Work Trial Scheme

In 2010, a total of 449 job seekers with exceptional difficulties finding jobs took part in a 'Work Trial Scheme' run by the Labour Department.

On completion of the one-month trial, each participant receives $5,000 from the Labour Department plus $500 from the organisation for which he or she worked.

Pilot Employment Navigator Programme

A two-year Pilot Employment Navigator Programme was launched by the Labour Department in December 2010 to motivate and assist unemployed job seekers to secure and remain in employment. A participant who can secure employment after receiving employment consultation services under the programme can apply for a cash incentive. The cash incentive may amount to $5,000 if a participant stays in the job for at least three months.