The total number of vacancies in the private sector surged 55% to 32,200 in June, with hotels and boarding houses recording a 200% increase. Total employment also went up 3.1%, to 2.265 million people.

The Census & Statistics Department said employment increased in most of the selected sectors in June compared with a year earlier, partly attributable to the low base of comparison last year.

The import/export trade engaged 494,600 people, followed by the community, social and personal services sector engaging 418,100 people, the retail trade 216,500 people, and the business services sector 199,900 people.

Employment in restaurant, hotel sectors up

On a year-on-year comparison, distinct increases in employment were recorded in restaurants (9.8%), hotels and boarding houses (8.6%), business services (5.3%), wholesale trade (5.1%), and the transport and storage sector (5%).

On the other hand, employment in the manufacturing sector and manual workers at construction sites slightly fell, by 1.7% and 1%.

Taking all the selected major sectors together, total employment increased markedly by 3.1% to 2.265 million people.

Vacancies surged noticeably in nearly all selected sectors. Remarkable increases were observed in hotels and boarding houses (200%), transport and storage (130%), construction sites in respect of manual workers (120%), restaurants (85%), and the import/export trade (83%).

Total vacancies surge 55%

However, an 8.9% decrease in vacancies was observed in the communications sector. Taking all the selected major sectors together, the total number of vacancies in the private sector went up 55% to 32,200.

Among the vacancies, 7,920 were from the import/export trade, 6,210 from the community, social and personal services sector, 3,790 from the business services sector, and 3,600 from the financing and insurance sector.

Analysed by major occupation category, private sector vacancies were observed mainly for associate professionals (11,740), service workers and shop sales workers (6,920) and clerks (5,890).

On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, while total employment in the selected major sectors grew by 0.9% in June, total vacancies showed a larger increase of 5.7%.