The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the third quarter of 2009. Survey coverage included Manufacturing; Hotels & Restaurants; Financial; and Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sectors, excluding own-account workers, as well as insurance agents and brokers not directly employed by insurance companies. Survey results were extrapolated according to the information collected from 551 statistical units successfully interviewed. At the end of the third quarter of 2009, the Manufacturing sector had 16,321 paid employees, down significantly by 31.8% year-on-year, with those working in Manufacture of Wearing Apparel decreasing by 43.3% to 8,686. In September 2009, the average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) of full-time employees rose by 4.8% year-on-year to MOP5,630, with Sewing machine operators earning MOP3,190 in average. Hotels & Restaurants sector took on 47,345 paid employees, down by 4.4% year-on-year, with 30,595 working in hotels. In September, the average earnings of full-time employees dropped by 1.4% to MOP9,960; average earnings of hotel employees amounted to MOP11,480, with Housekeeping staff earning an average of MOP6,080. The Financial sector had 5,475 paid employees, down by 3.0% year-on-year, with 4,640 working in banks. The average earnings for full-time employees in September rose marginally by 0.1% year-on-year to MOP17,470 and that of Bank tellers was MOP10,270. Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector had 1,061 paid employees, up slightly by 0.4% over the third quarter of 2008. The average earnings for full-time employees in September went up slightly by 0.6% year-on-year to MOP22,270. At the end of September 2009, the Manufacturing; Hotels & Restaurants and Financial sectors reported 1,534, 3,790 and 163 vacancies respectively, down by 15.8%, 5.7% and 8.9% year-on-year. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 62.2% of the vacancies in Hotels & Restaurants sector and 60.8% of those in the Manufacturing sector required working experience. As regards educational attainment, 98.7% of the vacancies in the Financial sector and 72.2% of those in the Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector required senior secondary education or higher. Besides Cantonese, Mandarin (63.1%) and English (41.2%) were the more preferable language skills of the vacancies in Hotels & Restaurants sector, while 92.9% of those in the Financial sector required knowledge of English.
