The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the first quarter of 2020. Survey coverage for this quarter comprises Manufacturing; Hotels; Restaurants; Electricity, Gas & Water Supply; Insurance; Activities Auxiliary to Financial Intermediation (formerly referred to as Financial Intermediation Activities); Child-care and Elderly Care, and the coverage has been extended to Other Financial Intermediation except Banking. This survey excludes the self-employed, as well as insurance agents and brokers not directly employed by insurance companies.

At the end of the first quarter of 2020, Hotels had 59,052 full-time employees, a drop of 0.8% year-on-year; average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time employees in March edged down by 0.1% year-on-year to MOP18,170, representing a decrease of 2.3% from September 2019.

Restaurants had 24,880 full-time employees, down by 5.0% year-on-year, with the average earnings reducing by 21.6% to MOP8,180.

Manufacturing had 9,085 full-time employees, up by 1.1% year-on-year; average earnings in March dropped by 14.2% to MOP10,760. Meanwhile, number of full-time employees in Electricity, Gas & Water Supply held steady year-on-year at 1,096, while their average earnings decreased by 1.3% to MOP31,210.

Other Financial Intermediation except Banking had 241 full-time employees, an increase of 25.5% year-on-year; average earnings in March rose by 9.2% to MOP24,550. Insurance had 639 full-time employees, up by 4.8% year-on-year, with the average earnings in March rising by 3.9% to MOP30,180. Furthermore, full-time employees in Activities Auxiliary to Financial Intermediation went down by 6.7% year-on-year to 350, and the average earnings decreased by 5.8% to MOP14,030.

Child-care had 1,529 full-time employees, up by 0.7% year-on-year; average earnings in March rose by 1.8% to MOP15,830. Moreover, full-time employees in Elderly Care increased by 15.4% year-on-year to 1,035, and the average earnings grew by 3.8% to MOP15,760. 

Affected by the epidemic, job vacancies in Restaurants (1,306), Hotels (986) and Manufacturing (243) dropped notably by 917, 1,147 and 1,116 respectively year-on-year at the end of the first quarter. There were 85.2% of the vacancies in Insurance requiring knowledge of English, whereas 75.7% and 48.6% of the vacancies in Hotels required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively.

In the first quarter, the employee recruitment rate (1.2%) and the job vacancy rate (1.6%) of Hotels fell by 2.9 and 1.9 percentage points respectively year-on-year. For Restaurants, the employee recruitment rate (2.5%) and the job vacancy rate (5.0%) showed respective decline of 3.3 and 2.8 percentage points. The figures indicated a reduction in demand for manpower in these two industries.

During the first quarter, a total of 237,914 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 establishment), down by 11.2% year-on-year. Hotels had 235,011 participants in vocational training, with most of them taking Business & Administration courses (50.1%), followed by Services courses (32.9%); the majority of the participants attended courses during office hours. As regards course fees, over 99% of the participants from Hotels, Manufacturing and Activities Auxiliary to Financial Intermediation took courses paid by the establishment, while the corresponding rate for Restaurants was 88.7%.