The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the fourth quarter of 2021. Survey coverage comprises Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities; however, the self-employed are excluded.

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, number of persons engaged in Wholesale & Retail Trade decreased by 1.7% year-on-year to 62,624; among them, 39,417 were engaged in Retail Trade, a drop of 0.3%. In December 2021, average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time employees were MOP13,980, down by 3.5% compared to June 2021 but up by 3.9% year-on-year.

The Transport, Storage & Communications sector had 13,783 persons engaged, similar to the number in the same quarter of 2020. Average earnings of full-time employees in December went down by 2.0% year-on-year to MOP21,390.

Security Activities had 13,028 persons engaged, down by 3.6% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in December rose by 2.2% year-on-year to MOP13,580.

Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 956 persons engaged, an increase of 1.7% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in December fell by 3.6% year-on-year to MOP18,020.

Job vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade (1,836) dropped by 420 year-on-year, while those in Security Activities (1,170) increased by 116.

In terms of recruitment prerequisites, most of the vacancies in Security Activities (86.7%) and Wholesale Trade (72.0%) required only junior secondary education or lower, while 18.8% of the vacancies in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector required tertiary education. As regards language skills, 59.0% and 37.1% of the vacancies in Retail Trade required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively, while the corresponding proportions for Security Activities were 50.2% and 46.2%.

The employee recruitment rate (4.6%) in Retail Trade edged up by 0.1 percentage point year-on-year, while the employee turnover rate (4.3%) and the job vacancy rate (4.0%) dropped by 1.3 and 0.9 percentage points respectively; this indicated that some of the vacancies in the industry had been filled. Regarding the Transport, Storage & Communications sector, the employee recruitment rate (4.6%) rose by 0.7 percentage points year-on-year, while the employee turnover rate (3.3%) and the job vacancy rate (3.4%) decreased by 2.5 and 0.5 percentage points respectively, implying a slight improvement in employee turnover.

As regards vocational training in the surveyed industries, a total of 42,989 participants attended 1,428 training courses provided by the establishments in the fourth quarter of 2021 (including courses organised by the establishments or in conjunction with other institutions, and those sponsored by the employer); 44.8% of the establishments in Security Activities and 25.0% of those in Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities provided vocational training to their employees. Wholesale & Retail Trade had the largest number of participants, with 19,997 participants attending a total of 1,068 training courses. Analysed by course type, the majority of the participants in Wholesale & Retail Trade took courses in “Business & administration” (73.8%), followed by courses in “Services” (13.0%). Meanwhile, the course fees of over 70.0% of the participants in the surveyed industries, except Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, were paid by the establishments.