Hong Kong's unemployment rate remains at 3.5%, continuing 30-month high
Preliminary data from the Census and Statistics Department on Thursday showed that the number of unemployed people during the three months was 136,200, slightly higher than 135,800 in the previous three months.
'While the unemployment and underemployment rates … remained the same as those of the preceding three-month period, various industries in Hong Kong are undergoing transition, and their respective unemployment rates have different trends,' Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said.
He added that future jobless rates would hinge on the overall economic performance of the city, and warned that an influx of fresh graduates would have an impact on the overall employment situation.
'Nevertheless, the continued expansion of the Hong Kong economy should provide support to the labour market,' he said.
The department said job losses were mainly in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, and professional and business services sector.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
7 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China promised the Philippines billions in development aid. Why did it fall so short?
China pledged US$30.5 billion in development aid to the Philippines between 2015 and 2023 – the most for any Southeast Asian country – but only a sliver of that funding ever arrived, according to new data from an Australian think tank report. Advertisement Of the total pledged, just US$700 million was actually disbursed – a shortfall analysts attribute to derailed infrastructure projects, changing political winds in Manila and rising tensions with Beijing. These factors have not only stalled flagship ventures under the Belt and Road Initiative but also cast doubt on the long-term viability of Chinese development finance in the region. The report by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute, released on Sunday, found that while the Philippines received the highest total commitment from China among Southeast Asian nations, it ranked near the bottom in actual disbursements. Indonesia, by contrast, received and spent US$20.3 billion out of the US$20.7 billion Beijing had pledged, mostly on energy and transport projects. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (left) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2017. Duterte pursued closer ties with Beijing through a wave of high-profile infrastructure agreements. Photo: AP The bulk of China's pledged financing to the Philippines was made during the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte , who held office from 2016 to 2022 and pursued closer ties with Beijing through a wave of high-profile infrastructure agreements.
South China Morning Post
7 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump's copper tariffs fail to stop US metal being shipped to China
Aaron Forkash, a scrap metal dealer based in California, plans to continue exporting copper to Asia even after US President Donald Trump's new 50 per cent tariff on the metal comes into force on August 1. The Trump administration has said the import duty will help revive the US copper industry by making it more profitable to produce the metal at home. But the truth is that it is actually cheaper and easier for American scrap dealers to ship copper to China and other Asian economies than to another part of the United States – and that is unlikely to change after the tariff kicks in, dealers said. 'I don't know how tariffs are going to work,' Forkash said. 'All I can do is compare (prices) on a day-to-day basis.' Many other American scrap dealers are also expected to continue exporting to copper-hungry China , analysts said, as the tariffs are unlikely to resolve fundamental issues in the US metals industry such as a lack of processing capacity.
South China Morning Post
8 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China on Thai-Cambodian conflict; Taiwan recall vote: SCMP daily highlights
Catch up on some of SCMP's biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing China and Europe should foster a 'healthy' economic relationship characterised by both competition and cooperation, the Chinese premier told European Union leaders and businesses on Thursday. China will continue to play a 'constructive role' in helping to ease regional tensions, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday, as Thai and Cambodian troops exchanged fire on their border for a second day. Chinese researchers have manufactured the world's largest barium gallium selenide (BGSe) crystal, a breakthrough that could pave the way for ultra-high-power laser weapons capable of zapping satellites from the ground.
