Staunch support: Permanent Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Matthew Cheung and Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Stephen Ip give their support to a job-seeker at a recruitment forum in Tsing Yi.

The Labour Department has placed 40,000 jobs in the past six months, and continued to receive 1,000 jobs per working day from the private sector. The figure for job placements was only 30,000 in the first half of last year.

Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Stephen Ip said today the labour market is picking up, and has been influenced by the economy. For example, the Individual Visit Scheme has boosted business for food and beverage industry and led to a 4% surge in the sector's jobs.

"So you can see the situation is improving. But of course we need to work very hard. We need to continue to encourage people to invest in Hong Kong to create new jobs," he said.

Mr Ip said there will be pressure on employment over the next few months as graduates look for jobs. Job fairs, together with a number of youth training schemes offered by the Labour Department will help relieve the situation.

Illegal employment enforcement stepped up

Mr Ip said 169 employers were convicted for illegal employment in the first five months of this year, with 106 jailed - a significant rise of 706% when compared with 15 in the same period last year.

The jail terms ranged from 14 days to 15 months, longer than the range from seven days to seven months recorded in the same period last year.

Mr Ip said the department will step up inspections and blitz operations to deter illegal employment.