ENG-2016 — Page 68

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The Economy

and resilient in coping with the changing global and regional economic landscapes. Hong Kong's productive capacity has effectively expanded, thanks to increased supply-chain arrangements involving the Mainland and other neighbouring economies. Its well-established links with the Mainland economy have underpinned the growth of Hong Kong's services sector, especially the rapid development of trading, financial and other supporting services.

The increasing service orientation of the economy was also borne out by a shift in the sectoral composition of employment. Over the past two decades, the share of the services sector in total employment increased from 80 per cent in 1996 to 87 per cent in 2006 and 88 per cent in 2016. As for individual service segments, import/export trade and wholesale, retail, accommodation and food services accounted for 30 per cent of the total in 2016. This was followed by public administration, social and personal services with a share of 27 per cent; financing and insurance, real estate, professional and business services (20 per cent); and transportation, storage, postal and courier services, information and communications (11 per cent) (chart 4).

Chart 4

Employment by Major Service Sector

1996

2016

Transportation, storage, postal and courier services, information and communications

Financing

and insurance, real estate, professional and business services 20.2%

Transport, storage and communications

Wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels 34.9%

10.9%

Finance, insurance, real estate and business services 11.8%

11.2%

Other sectors 20.3%

Community, social and personal services

22.1%

Import/export, wholesale and retail trades, accommodation and food services 30.2%

Other

sectors 11.7%

Public administration, social and personal services 26.8%

Import/export trade and wholesale, retail, accommodation and food services employed the most people in 2016.

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 the previous years is based on Version 1.1.

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