The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the second quarter of 2022. Survey coverage comprises Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities; however, the self-employed are excluded. Following the resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-June 2022, a relatively large number of employees in some industries were placed on unpaid leave; as a result, average earnings of full-time employees in June this year generally decreased.

At the end of the second quarter of 2022, number of persons engaged in Wholesale & Retail Trade decreased by 2.1% year-on-year to 61,924. Among them, 39,765 were working in Retail Trade, up by 1.0%. In June 2022, average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time employees were MOP13,990, down by 3.5% year-on-year.

The Transport, Storage & Communications sector had 13,914 persons engaged, an increase of 1.2% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees fell by 4.0% year-on-year to MOP20,200 in June.

Security Activities had 13,098 persons engaged, down by 1.4% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in June dropped by 1.1% year-on-year to MOP12,750.

Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 967 persons engaged, an increase of 3.1% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in June grew by 3.0% year-on-year to MOP19,620.

Job vacancies in Retail Trade (1,381), Security Activities (1,184) and the Transport, Storage & Communications sector (484) decreased by 384, 118 and 601 respectively year-on-year.

In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 84.2% of the vacancies in Security Activities required only junior secondary education or lower; meanwhile, 21.5% of the vacancies in Wholesale Trade and 17.3% of those in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector required tertiary education. As regards language skills, 58.9% and 50.8% of the vacancies in Retail Trade required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively, while the corresponding proportions for Security Activities were 84.5% and 42.0%.

The employee recruitment rate (4.2%) and the job vacancy rate (4.1%) in Retail Trade went down by 1.1 and 1.0 percentage points respectively year-on-year. As for the Transport, Storage & Communications sector, the employee recruitment rate (3.9%) and the job vacancy rate (3.8%) showed respective decreases of 0.3 and 4.2 percentage points year-on-year. The figures reflected a slowdown in demand for manpower in these two sectors.

As regards vocational training in the surveyed industries, a total of 29,305 participants attended 1,326 training courses provided by the establishments in the second quarter of 2022 (including courses organised by the establishments or in conjunction with other institutions, and those sponsored by the employer); 43.1% of the establishments in Security Activities and 25.0% of those in Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities provided vocational training to their employees. Security Activities had the largest number of participants, with 13,249 participants attending a total of 201 training courses. Analysed by course type, the majority of the participants in Security Activities took courses in “Business & administration” (38.1%), followed by courses in “Services” (30.9%). Meanwhile, the course fees of over 90.0% of the participants in all the surveyed industries were paid by the establishments.