The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released the results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the second quarter of 2009. The survey covered Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, but excluded own-account workers. The survey results were extrapolated according to the information collected from 906 statistical units successfully interviewed.

At the end of the second quarter of 2009, Wholesale & Retail Trade had 27,098 paid employees, up by 6.7% year-on-year, with 16,428 working in Retail trade. In June 2009, the average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) for full-time employees rose by 4.2% year-on-year to MOP8,650, with those of Sales representatives and Salespersons amounting to MOP11,010 and MOP7,170 respectively.

Transport, Storage & Communications took on 7,709 paid employees, up by 2.1% year-on-year. In June 2009, the average earnings for full-time employees increased slightly by 0.3% year-on-year to MOP14,920. Drivers of passenger/cargo transport by land earned an average of MOP11,880.

Security Activities had 3,804 paid employees, up by 0.7% over the second quarter of 2008. The average earnings for full-time employees in June 2009 dropped slightly by 0.2% year-on-year to MOP7,400, with Security guards earning MOP 7,000 in average.

Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 665 paid employees, up by 5.2% year-on-year. The average earnings for full-time employees in June 2009 increased by 2.1% year-on-year to MOP11,270.

At the end of June 2009, Wholesale & Retail Trade and Transport, Storage & Communications reported 1,686 and 295 vacancies respectively, down significantly by 51.2% and 67.6% year-on-year; Security Activities had 480 vacancies, a year-on-year decrease of 1.0%.

In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 64.4% of the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade and 51.0% of those in Transport, Storage & Communications required working experience. As regards educational attainment, 42.5% and 59.6% of the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade and Transport, Storage & Communications required senior secondary education or higher, while 85.4% of those in Security Activities required primary education only. Besides Cantonese, Mandarin (59.2%) was the more preferable language skill of the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade.