Hong Kong’s underused workers at 17-year high during third COVID wave
Hong Kong saw the most workers being left unoccupied as the underemployment rate hit a 17-year high in August, at the height of its third wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The latest labor market figures indicate major failures in the government’s attempts to save jobs while businesses continue to suffer under the strain of a prolonged economic downturn amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Unemployment stayed the same, at 6.1%, for the three months from June to August, on a par with the May-July period, according to statistics published by the Census and Statistics Department on Thursday. With 5,800 more people going out of work, a total of 248,000 people were jobless.
The underemployment rate climbed by 0.3% to 3.8%, a new high since the citywide SARS epidemic in 2003, said Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong, adding that the rise was concentrated in food and beverage services, transport, insurance and education. The number of underemployed people increased by 13,200 to 149,000.
In Hong Kong, the underemployed comprises employed people who have involuntarily worked less than 35 hours a week and have sought additional work the past 30 days, and those who have not sought, but have been available for, additional work. Staffers who are on no-pay leave are also classified as underemployed.
Law pointed out that the labor market would remain under pressure in the short term because “the global pandemic situation is still fluctuating and is in a rising trend, while the overall economic situation remains weak.”
With the city’s latest wave of COVID-19 showing signs of slowing down since the previous week, the government has progressively relaxed control measures that, combined with the outbreak, had dealt businesses a double whammy.
Pubs, party rooms and karaoke bars are allowed to reopen from Friday for a weeklong trial, while eateries may serve dine-in customers until midnight.
The labor market’s response often lagged behind economic performance, said Kelvin Lau, a senior economist of Standard Chartered Hong Kong. Because of that, the city’s unemployment rate was expected to continue to rise and might not peak until the fourth quarter, he said, predicting that the general labor market would remain sluggish.
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