Cautious optimism: Financial Secretary Henry Tang says the Government remains cautious but somewhat optimistic for medium-term improvement to the unemployment situation.

Employment remained stable for the quarter ending September with unemployment at 6.8%, and underemployment falling 0.1% to 3.2%.

Unemployment fell in the construction, communications and insurance sectors, whereas increases were seen in the restaurants, wholesale trade, and amusement and recreational services sectors.

Underemployment falls were concentrated in the foundation and superstructure construction, retail trade, and amusement and recreational services sectors.

Total employment fell by 11,700 to 3.28 million. The total labour force fell by 12,700 to 3.53 million. The number of unemployed people remained unchanged at 249,000, while the number of underemployed fell about 5,000 to 113,000.

FS cautious on employment situation

Financial Secretary Henry Tang said he would like to see unemployment fall faster, but as Hong Kong is going through a challenging period of economic transformation and employment shift, the Government remains cautious but somewhat optimistic for medium-term improvement to the unemployment situation.

He said the Government will work together with various sectors of the community to improve employment.

On the economic situation, Mr Tang said being an open market, Hong Kong will inevitably be affected by the world economy with changing factors, like the fuel price hike, interest rate trends and the Mainland's macro-economic adjustment. So, the road ahead for Hong Kong remains challenging.

Historic high job placements achieved

Many youngsters who entered the labour market during the summer holiday quit their jobs for further study in September. And there was a similar drop in the total labour force and employment.

Overall labour market sentiment and other indicators remained positive, in line with the sustained economic pick-up.

For September, the Labour Department achieved an historic high job placement of 7,963, up 28% over the same month last year.

In the first three quarters of the year, some 62,000 placements had been achieved, up 31.9% over the same period last year. This amounted to 94% of the overall 66,100 placements for the whole of 2003.

The department received on average some 1,200 private sector vacancies on each working day in September. It also successfully placed 27,821 people into jobs, the second highest figure so far.

3,300 jobs on offer November 4

In the first nine months, the department received 216,418 private sector vacancies, surpassing the full-year figure of 215,430 last year. This shows the economic recovery has generated rising job opportunities.

The department will hold its largest ever job fair offering 3,300 vacancies from over 40 employers on November 4.

Hong Kong received some 429,000 Mainland visitors during the recent National Day Golden Week, up 27% over last year. Over 3.8 million Mainlanders visited Hong Kong under the Individual Visit Scheme, resulting in spending of some $23 billion.