Hong Kong’s jobless rate unchanged in October, labor market likely to remain stable in near-term

The latest labor force statistics of Hong Kong released by the Census and Statistics Department showed that the country’s jobless rate stood at 3.4 percent seasonally adjusted in October, the same as in September. The underemployment rate also stayed the same at 1.4 percent in the two periods.

In seasonally unadjusted terms, the movements in the jobless rate in various industry sectors differed. A rise was particularly seen in repair, domestic, laundry and other personal service activities sector, whereas a drop was recorded in the construction sector. As to the underemployment rate, a rise was mainly seen in superstructure works of construction sector, whereas a drop was noted in the domestic, laundry, repair and other personal service activities sector.

The total number of employment dropped around 2,500 from 3,813,400 to 3,810,900. In the same period, the labor force also fell around 7000 to 3,947,000. Meanwhile, on a seasonally unadjusted basis, the number of unemployed persons dropped around 45000 from 140,600 to 136,100 in October. The number of underemployed persons remained at 55,300 in October.

The jobless rate of consumption and tourism-related segment dropped 0.1 percentage point in the preceding period to 5.2 percent in October. On a year-on-year basis, the jobless rate was 0.5 percentage point higher in the tourism segment. Meanwhile, the retail sector’s unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percentage point to 5.3 percent.

Regarding Hong Kong’s short-term labor market outlook, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said that while the “labor market is expected to remain largely stable in the near term, the considerable external uncertainties and their potential impact on the local economy remain causes for concern”.