The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the third quarter of 2020. Survey coverage for this quarter comprises Manufacturing; Electricity, Gas & Water Supply; Hotels; Restaurants; Insurance; Other Financial Intermediation except Banking; Activities Auxiliary to Financial Intermediation; 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 2020, Hotels had 53,770 full-time employees, a drop of 11.3% year-on-year; average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time employees in September 2020 were MOP16,680, down by 8.2% from March and 10.3% year-on-year.

Restaurants had 25,046 full-time employees, a decrease of 4.2% year-on-year; their average earnings fell by 7.4% to MOP9,100.

Manufacturing had 9,154 full-time employees, up slightly by 0.3% year-on-year; average earnings in September dropped by 15.5% to MOP10,670. Meanwhile, number of full-time employees in Electricity, Gas & Water Supply increased by 1.5% year-on-year to 1,112, with their average earnings rising by 1.1% to MOP32,040.

Child-care had 1,525 full-time employees, down by 2.2% year-on-year; average earnings in September rose by 2.4% to MOP16,330. In addition, full-time employees in Elderly Care increased by 13.4% year-on-year to 1,100, and their average earnings went up by 1.4% to MOP15,520.

Insurance had 653 full-time employees, up by 6.2% year-on-year; their average earnings in September grew by 2.0% to MOP29,970. Other Financial Intermediation except Banking had 237 full-time employees, an increase of 9.7% year-on-year; average earnings in September rose by 1.3% to MOP25,110. On the other hand, number of full-time employees in Activities Auxiliary to Financial Intermediation went down by 6.2% year-on-year to 346, with their average earnings decreasing by 11.7% to MOP13,250. 

Job vacancies in Restaurants (1,003), Hotels (536) and Manufacturing (361) dropped by 841, 859 and 298 respectively year-on-year at the end of the third quarter. All of the vacancies in Other Financial Intermediation except Banking required knowledge of Mandarin and English, whereas 60.3% and 45.0% of the vacancies in Hotels required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively.

In the third quarter, the employee recruitment rate (1.0%) and the job vacancy rate (1.0%) of Hotels fell by 4.0 and 1.2 percentage points respectively year-on-year. For Restaurants, the employee recruitment rate (4.5%) and the job vacancy rate (3.9%) showed respective decline of 4.1 and 2.7 percentage points. This indicated a reduction in demand for manpower in these two industries.

During the third quarter, a total of 333,531 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 1.1% year-on-year. Hotels had 328,837 participants in vocational training, with most of them taking Services courses (53.3%), followed by Business & Administration courses (32.9%); the majority of the participants attended courses during office hours. As regards course fees, over 90% of the participants from Hotels, Insurance, Other Financial Intermediation except Banking and Activities Auxiliary to Financial Intermediation took courses paid by the establishment, while the corresponding rate for Child-care was 64.4%.