Results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the 2nd Quarter 2008

The Statistics and Census Service released the results of the survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the second quarter of 2008. The survey covered Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, but excluded own-account workers engaging in these industries. The survey results were extrapolated from the information collected from 887 statistical units successfully interviewed. At the end of the second quarter of 2008, Wholesale & Retail Trade had 25,392 paid employees, up by 16.3% over the same period of 2007, with 14,769 working in Retail trade. In June 2008, the average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) for full-time employees amounted to MOP 8,302, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.8%. Sales representatives and Salespersons earned MOP 10,934 and MOP 7,079 respectively in average. Transport, Storage & Communications took on 7,548 paid employees, up by 2.2% over the second quarter of 2007. In June 2008, the average earnings for full-time employees in this sector increased by 10.2% year-on-year to MOP 14,868. Passenger vehicle/truck drivers in Land transport earned an average of MOP 13,145. Security Activities had 3,777 paid employees, up by 3.8% over the second quarter of 2007. Average earnings for full-time employees in June 2008 rose by 19.4% year-on-year to MOP 7,407, with Security guards earning MOP 7,055 in average. Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 632 paid employees, up by 7.1% compared with the second quarter of 2007; the average earnings for full-time employees in June 2008 increased by 5.5% year-on-year to MOP 11,037. At the end of June 2008, Wholesale & Retail Trade reported to have 3,454 vacancies, of which 1,997 were in Retail trade; Transport, Storage & Communications had 910 and Security Activities had 485 vacancies. As regards recruitment prerequisites, 57.7% of the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade and 37.5% in Transport, Storage & Communications required working experience; 58.9% and 28.9% of the vacancies in the above-mentioned industries required junior secondary or lower in educational attainment, while 84.5% of those in Security Activities required primary education only. Besides Cantonese, Mandarin (53.6%) was the more preferable language skill in Wholesale & Retail Trade.