Congratulations!: Permanent Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Matthew Cheung presents an award to one of the most improved Youth Pre-employment Training Programme trainees.

The youth jobless situation will improve in this year's fourth quarter, even though 40,000 school leavers are expected to look for jobs, Permanent Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Matthew Cheung says.

Mr Cheung said today the school leavers will put pressure on the labour market, but there are jobs on offer. Yesterday, there were a total of 9,070 jobs registered in the Labour Department suitable for Secondary Five and Seven graduates, with 93.3% for the former. The posts include sales representatives and clerks.

While the jobless rate for people aged 15 to 19 is still high, at 26.4% in this year's second quarter, Mr Cheung said the number of unemployed young people fell to 14,300 from 19,800 in the same period of 2004.

He also noted the size of labour force for the 15-19 age group shrank to 54,000 people from 68,100 in the second quarter of 2004, due to more opportunities in higher studies.

Turning to the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme and the Youth Work Experience & Training Scheme, Mr Cheung said so far more than 4,200 applications have been received since the launch of the joint recruitment exercise on July 29.

About 73,000 young people have been benefited from the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme since its inception in 1999, with about 70% engaged in the labour market. The Youth Work Experience & Training Scheme has aided more than 40,000 young people in finding jobs since July 2002.