ENG-2019 — Page 84

Chart 9

-1

Per cent

4

3

2

-2

3

The Economy

Total Labour Force and Total Employment (year-on-year rate of change)

Total employment

Total labour force

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

I

2015

2016

I

2017

|

2018

|

The total labour force and total employment contracted in 2019.

2019

Wages and earnings stayed on the rise in 2019, but the pace of increase decelerated in the second half. Labour earnings, as measured by the index of payroll per person engaged for all selected industry sections, registered a decelerated year-on-year increase of 2.7 per cent in the second half of the year, compared with 4.1 per cent in the first half. While the economic slowdown played a part, the delay in pay adjustment in some subvented organisations also contributed to the slower growth. For 2019 as a whole, labour earnings rose 3.4 per cent, slower than the gain of 3.9 per cent in the preceding year.

Separately, the General Household Survey, though not strictly comparable to surveys on businesses, suggested that earnings of low-income workers continued to increase in 2019. The average monthly employment earnings of full-time employees in the lowest three decile groups combined, excluding foreign domestic helpers, increased 3.6 per cent in nominal terms, slightly above the inflation rate of 3.3 per cent as measured by the Consumer Price Index (A), which was driven up by a sharp increase in pork prices since May 2019. As to the overall income situation, median monthly household income, excluding foreign domestic helpers, went up slightly by 1.7 per cent from $28,000 in 2018 to $28,500 in 2019.

Property Market

Having stayed generally active during the first five months of 2019, the residential property market quietened visibly from June, as sentiment was dampened by the weaker global economy, the Mainland-US trade tensions, the local social incidents and their impacts on the local economic outlook. Flat prices generally softened from June onwards, reversing the rebound in the preceding five months.

46