HK jobless rate rises to 3.5% with Labour Dept. tightening imported labour scheme
發佈日期: 2025-06-17 20:06
TVB News
Hong Kong's unemployment rate has risen for the second consecutive month, reaching 3.5 percent.
The Labour Department announced that starting today, the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme will step up protection for local workers by generally allowing only one application per employer every six months.
With the recent closures of chain restaurants and businesses amid an uncertain economic outlook, the city's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from March to May rose by 0.1 percentage point to 3.5 percent.
This reflects an increase of about 6,400 individuals going out of a job, bringing the total number of jobless people to nearly 136,000.
The rises were more pronounced in the construction, retail and property sectors.
Statistics show that the jobless rate has grown faster in recent months.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said external uncertainties and structural adjustments in different sectors will continue to affect job creation.
The government has introduced the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme since the third quarter of 2023, allowing the import of labour for 26 lower-skilled roles including waiters and salespeople that were previously excluded.
That's given they fulfil conditions including an unsuccessful local recruitment drive over four weeks.
The two-year scheme has approved the import of over 54,000 foreign workers as of late March with the catering industry accounting for most hires.
But labour groups have been critical, citing concerns that some employers have abused the mechanism to displace local workers.
With that, the Labour Department said it is introducing four new measures to better protect local workers' employment.
Employers will generally not be able to hand in another application within six months of a previous submission unless in special circumstances such as contract renewals for already imported workers.
The government will roll out an online platform for local workers to file relevant complaints.
Authorities will also conduct targeted inspections at firms employing imported workers to verify that local-to-imported worker ratio remains at least 2:1.
Violations will result in penalties, including withdrawals of approvals and a two-year ban from future applications.
