Results of the 4th quarter 2004 Manpower needs and Wages Survey

The survey coverage for the fourth quarter of 2004 includes Wholesale & Retail Trade and Transport, Storage & Communications, but excludes all own-account workers in these two industries. Information on the number of employees, earnings and number of vacancies was extrapolated based on the results from 793 statistical units successfully interviewed. The results are as follows. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2004, a total of 18.080 paid employees were employed in Wholesale & Retail Trade, of which 9 859 were working in Retail Trade. Compared with the same period of 2003, the number of paid employees in Wholesale & Retail Trade increased 14.0%. In December 2004, average earnings (excluding year-end bonuses, holiday allowances, profit-sharing bonuses and other similar bonuses) for full-time employee in Wholesale & Retail Trade was MOP 5.972, of which the average for Retail Trade was MOP 5.711. Compared with the same period of 2003, average earnings for Wholesale & Retail Trade increased 6.4%. Transport, Storage & Communications took on 8.667 employees of whom 2.464 were employed in Post & Telecommunications, followed by 2.257 in Supporting and Auxiliary Transport Activities and 1.425 in Land Transport. Compared with the same period of 2003, the number of paid employees in Transport, Storage & Communications increased 7.5%. As regards Transport, Storage & Communication, the monthly average earnings was MOP 9.820, of which the highest average was in Air Transport (MOP 20.673). Compared with the same period of 2003, average earnings for Transport, Storage & Communications grew 1.1%. On 31 December 2004, Wholesale & Retail Trade reported to have 1.603 vacancies, of which 947 vacancies were in Retail Trade. In addition, Transport, Storage & Communications had 660 vacancies, of which 350 posts were in Land Transport. As regards recruitment prerequisites, nearly 60% of the vacant posts in Wholesale & Retail Trade required “Professional experience” while in Transport, Storage & Communications, about 35% required the same. About 52.9% of the vacant posts in Wholesale & Retail Trade required Junior secondary education in the level of “Academic achievement”, while 39.7% of the vacant posts in Transport, Storage & Communications opted toward Senior secondary or higher. Besides Cantonese, the most opted “Language skills” in both industries was Mandarin, at 59.9% and 36.6% respectively, followed by English, with 24.7% and 28.8% respectively.