ENG-2010 — Page 92

50 The Economy

Chart 6

Employment by Major Service Sector

1990

Wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels 28.5%

Other sectors 37.3%

2010

Import/export trade and wholesale, retail, accommodation and food services 32.4%

Transport, storage and

communications

9.3%

Finance,

insurance,

real estate

and business

services

7.2%

Transportation, storage, postal

Other sectors 11.7%

Financing and insurance, real estate, professional and

Public

administration, social and personal

services

25.6%

Community, social

and courier services,

information and

and personal services 17.7%

communications

11.8%

business services 18.6%

Import/export trade and wholesale, retail, accommodation and food services. employed the most people in 2010.

Notes: The compilation methodology of composite employment estimates was reviewed in June 2005. Employment figures from 1996 onwards have thus been revised accordingly. They are not strictly comparable with those of earlier years.

Starting from the first quarter of 2009, industrial classification of employment has adopted the Hong Kong Standard Industrial Classification Version 2.0 while that in previous years is based on Version 1.1.

Economic Links between Hong Kong and the Mainland

Since the introduction of the Mainland's open door policy in 1978, the continuing economic integration between the Mainland and Hong Kong has brought enormous mutual benefits to both places. The huge flows of goods, services, people and capital between Hong Kong and the Mainland and between the Mainland and the world through Hong Kong have created remarkable growth in income and employment in both Hong Kong and the Mainland.

Visible trade between Hong Kong and the Mainland has soared by 288 times since 1978, at an average annual rate of 19 per cent in value terms (Chart 7). Hong Kong and the Mainland are currently ranked the 10th and the second largest trading entities respectively in the world.

The Mainland has long been Hong Kong's largest trading partner, accounting for 49 per cent of Hong Kong's total trade value in 2010. Of Hong Kong's re-export trade, 91 per cent was related to the Mainland, making it the largest market for and the largest source of Hong Kong's re-exports. Reciprocally, Hong Kong was the Mainland's fourth largest trading partner (after the European Union, the United States and Japan), accounting for nearly 8 per cent of the Mainland's total trade value in 2010.