Unemployment is a great concern to the Government, Permanent Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Matthew Cheung said, adding that it is taking steps to ease the jobless situation.

Addressing the launch of 2003 NWS Holdings - Urban Group Recruitment Month and the "University Elites" Executive Management Trainees Recruitment Day today, Mr Cheung outlined recently introduced measures to tackle the problem.

* In May, the Government put forward a $432 million relief package to provide 21,500 short-term employment and training opportunities. These included 10,000 skills-enhancement training places for workers in sectors hard hit by SARS who were unemployed or temporarily suspended without pay. All the newly-created posts have been filled.

* The Government allocated an additional $715 million in July to create 32,000 job opportunities, including 19,050 short-term jobs and 13,000 training places. Recruitment work commenced in mid-July and successful candidates are starting to report for duty.

* The Labour Department has launched employment programmes to strengthen its support for job-seekers. Apart from implementing the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme and Youth Work Experience & Training Programme, the department has introduced the Graduate Employment Training Scheme, Re-employment Training Programme for the Middle-aged and District Employment Programme for the Middle-aged.

Programme details

The Re-employment Training Programme encourages employers to offer on-the-job training to middle-aged unemployed people. Employers receive a training allowance of $1,500 a month for each participant employed for three months. Some 12,000 job seekers are expected to benefit from the programme.

Employers who hire university graduates and provide them with on-the-job training under the Graduate Employment Training Scheme will be paid a monthly allowance of $2,000 for each trainee engaged for a maximum of six months. About 2,000 university graduates will benefit from the programme.

"All these demonstrate that the Government is committed to providing comprehensive employment assistance to job seekers of different age groups and academic qualifications," Mr Cheung said.

Prepare for recovery: invest in human resources

He noted that there were signs of a steady pick-up in a number of business sectors. The latest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose by just 0.1% and there are signs that the upward adjustment is slowing down.

"With fresh graduates entering the labour market, the unemployment rate in the short term will remain high. Although most companies are still having a hard time now, it is high time to invest in human resources to prepare for economic recovery," Mr Cheung said.

The manpower requirement for property management has always been high, he noted. With the completion of quite a number of new building projects and the need for quality property management in the post-SARS period, such demand will further increase.