The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the second quarter of 2020. Survey coverage comprises Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities; however, own-account workers are excluded.

At the end of the second quarter of 2020, number of persons engaged in Wholesale & Retail Trade increased by 1.8% year-on-year to 64,628; among them, 40,189 were working in Retail Trade, a decrease of 2.2%. In June 2020, average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time employees fell by 11.8% year-on-year to MOP12,290.

The Transport, Storage & Communications sector had 13,265 persons engaged, a drop of 5.7% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees decreased by 11.5% year-on-year to MOP20,030 in June.

Security Activities had 13,530 persons engaged, up by 9.7% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in June went down by 4.8% year-on-year to MOP12,420.

Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 926 persons engaged, an increase of 2.4% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in June shrank by 1.7% year-on-year to MOP18,450.

Job vacancies in Retail Trade (1,513) and Security Activities (1,030) dropped markedly by 1,525 and 226 respectively year-on-year, whereas vacancies in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector (678) rose by 15.

In terms of recruitment prerequisites, most of the vacancies in Security Activities (91.8%) and in Wholesale & Retail Trade (43.4%) required only junior secondary education or lower, while 34.7% of the vacancies in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector required tertiary education. As regards language skills, 83.9% and 62.0% of the vacancies in Retail Trade required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively, while the corresponding proportions for Security Activities were 55.3% and 43.2%.

The job vacancy rate (4.3%) and the employee recruitment rate (3.4%) in Retail Trade dropped by 4.0 and 4.3 percentage points respectively year-on-year, reflecting a decrease in demand for manpower in this sector. Regarding the Transport, Storage & Communications sector, the employee turnover rate (7.0%) rose by 3.2 percentage points year-on-year, while the employee recruitment rate (3.1%) fell by 2.2 percentage points; meanwhile, the job vacancy rate (5.1%) remained unchanged year-on-year, indicating that vacancies in this sector had not been filled.

As regards vocational training in the surveyed industries, a total of 30,626 participants attended 935 training courses provided by the establishments in the second quarter of 2020 (including courses organised by the establishments or in conjunction with other institutions, and those sponsored by the employer); 52.6% of the establishments in Security Activities and 50.0% of those in Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities provided vocational training to their employees. Security Activities had the largest number of participants, with 15,081 participants attending a total of 126 training courses. Analysed by course type, the majority of the participants in Security Activities took courses in “Business & administration” (65.6%), followed by courses in “Presentation and communication skills” (18.1%). Meanwhile, the course fees of over 70% of the participants in the surveyed industries, except for Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, were paid by the establishments.