Hong Kong’s unemployment unchanged at 5.4 per cent

Hong Kong’s unemployment unchanged at 5.4 per cent

HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s unemployment was unchanged at 5.4 percent between June and August this year, official data showed Thursday, as economic uncertainty meant employers remained cautious about hiring.

The seasonally adjusted rate has remained the same since the April-June period.

The number of jobless increased by around 3,000 to 216,800 in the three months ending August from the May-July period, while the workforce declined by around 6,900 to 3,712,000, according to the Census and Statistics Department.

The near-term outlook will depend a lot on the pace of job creation in the economy relative to that in the labour supply, Matthew Cheung, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, said in a statement.

‘As the pace of business growth remains uncertain, employers are generally cautious in hiring new hands at this point in time,’ he said.

‘Coupled with the relatively slow absorption of newcomers, including fresh graduates and school leavers into the labour market this year, the unemployment rate is expected to remain high in the near term.’