Results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the 2nd Quarter 2009

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released the results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the second quarter of 2009. The survey covered Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, but excluded own-account workers. The survey results were extrapolated according to the information collected from 906 statistical units successfully interviewed. At the end of the second quarter of 2009, Wholesale & Retail Trade had 27,098 paid employees, up by 6.7% year-on-year, with 16,428 working in Retail trade. In June 2009, the average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) for full-time employees rose by 4.2% year-on-year to MOP8,650, with those of Sales representatives and Salespersons amounting to MOP11,010 and MOP7,170 respectively. Transport, Storage & Communications took on 7,709 paid employees, up by 2.1% year-on-year. In June 2009, the average earnings for full-time employees increased slightly by 0.3% year-on-year to MOP14,920. Drivers of passenger/cargo transport by land earned an average of MOP11,880. Security Activities had 3,804 paid employees, up by 0.7% over the second quarter of 2008. The average earnings for full-time employees in June 2009 dropped slightly by 0.2% year-on-year to MOP7,400, with Security guards earning MOP 7,000 in average. Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 665 paid employees, up by 5.2% year-on-year. The average earnings for full-time employees in June 2009 increased by 2.1% year-on-year to MOP11,270. At the end of June 2009, Wholesale & Retail Trade and Transport, Storage & Communications reported 1,686 and 295 vacancies respectively, down significantly by 51.2% and 67.6% year-on-year; Security Activities had 480 vacancies, a year-on-year decrease of 1.0%. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 64.4% of the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade and 51.0% of those in Transport, Storage & Communications required working experience. As regards educational attainment, 42.5% and 59.6% of the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade and Transport, Storage & Communications required senior secondary education or higher, while 85.4% of those in Security Activities required primary education only. Besides Cantonese, Mandarin (59.2%) was the more preferable language skill of the vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade.