The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the third quarter of 2019. Survey coverage for this quarter comprises Manufacturing; Hotels; Restaurants; Insurance; Financial Intermediation Activities; Electricity, Gas & Water Supply; Child-care and Elderly Care. This survey excludes the self-employed, as well as insurance agents and brokers not directly employed by insurance companies.

At the end of the third quarter of 2019, Hotels had 60,614 full-time employees, up by 4.0% year-on-year; average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time employees in September rose by 3.0% to MOP18,590. Restaurants had 26,154 full-time employees, up by 3.0% year-on-year, with the average earnings rising by 0.4% to MOP9,830.

Manufacturing had 9,130 full-time employees, a decrease of 4.3% year-on-year; average earnings in September rose by 7.4% to MOP12,620. Electricity, Gas & Water Supply had 1,096 full-time employees, down by 2.0% from a year earlier, and average earnings dropped by 1.5% to MOP31,700.

Insurance had 615 full-time employees, up by 3.5% year-on-year; average earnings in September rose by 6.5% to MOP29,370. Furthermore, full-time employees in Financial Intermediation Activities decreased by 10.4% year-on-year to 369, whereas average earnings increased by 1.6% to MOP15,000.  

Child-care had 1,559 full-time employees, up by 5.8% year-on-year; average earnings in September rose by 4.0% to MOP15,940. Furthermore, full-time employees in Elderly Care increased by 19.8% year-on-year to 970, whereas average earnings decreased by 1.9% to MOP15,310. 

At the end of the third quarter, job vacancies in Restaurants (1,844), Hotels (1,395) and Manufacturing (659) fell by 475, 1,041 and 226 respectively year-on-year. There were 95.8% of the vacancies in Insurance requiring knowledge of English, whereas 70.8% and 49.6% of the vacancies in Hotels required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively.

In the third quarter, the employee recruitment rate (5.0%), the employee turnover rate (3.6%) and the job vacancy rate (2.2%) of Hotels fell by 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 percentage points respectively year-on-year, indicating a slowdown in demand for manpower in the industry. For Restaurants, the employee recruitment rate (8.6%) rose by 2.7 percentage points while the job vacancy rate (6.6%) dropped by 1.8 percentage points, showing that some of the vacancies in this industry have been filled.

In the third quarter, a total of 337,233 employee participants from the surveyed industries attended training courses provided by the establishment (including courses organised by the establishment or in conjunction with other institutions, and those sponsored by the employer), up by 39.8% year-on-year. Hotels had 332,167 participants in vocational training, with most of them taking Business & Administration courses (51.9%), followed by Services courses (40.0%); the vast majority of the participants attended courses during office hours. As regards course fees, over 90% of the participants from Hotels, Insurance and Financial Intermediation Activities took courses paid by the establishment, while the corresponding rate for Manufacturing was only 58.3%.