The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the fourth quarter of 2020. Survey coverage comprises Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities; however, the self-employed are excluded.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, number of persons engaged in Wholesale & Retail Trade decreased by 2.6% year-on-year to 63,737. Among them, 39,554 were working in Retail Trade, down by 5.7%. In December 2020, average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time employees were MOP13,450, up by 9.4% compared to June 2020 but down by 6.5% year-on-year.
The Transport, Storage & Communications sector had 13,786 persons engaged, a small drop of 0.4% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees decreased by 6.3% year-on-year to MOP21,830 in December.
Security Activities had 13,520 persons engaged, up slightly by 0.6% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in December went down by 2.9% year-on-year to MOP13,290.
Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 940 persons engaged, an increase of 2.6% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in December fell by 5.3% year-on-year to MOP18,690.
Job vacancies in Wholesale & Retail Trade (2,256) and Security Activities (1,054) dropped by 1,095 and 371 respectively year-on-year.
In terms of recruitment prerequisites, most of the vacancies in Security Activities (95.5%) and in Wholesale & Retail Trade (48.0%) required only junior secondary education or lower, while 24.6% of the vacancies in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector required tertiary education. As regards language skills, 81.0% and 50.7% of the vacancies in Retail Trade required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively, while the corresponding proportions for Security Activities were 57.3% and 45.4%.
The employee recruitment rate (4.5%) and the job vacancy rate (4.9%) in Retail Trade dropped by 1.0 and 0.8 percentage points respectively year-on-year, reflecting a decrease in the demand for manpower in this sector. Regarding the Transport, Storage & Communications sector, the employee turnover rate (5.8%) rose by 1.7 percentage points year-on-year, while the employee recruitment rate (3.9%) and the job vacancy rate (3.9%) decreased by 2.0 and 1.9 percentage points respectively, implying lower manpower needs in this sector.
As regards vocational training in the surveyed industries, a total of 42,880 participants attended 1,161 training courses provided by the establishments in the fourth quarter of 2020 (including courses organised by the establishments or in conjunction with other institutions, and those sponsored by the employer); 54.2% of the establishments in Security Activities and 25.0% of those in Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities provided vocational training to their employees. Security Activities had the largest number of participants, with 25,902 participants attending a total of 159 training courses. Analysed by course type, the majority of the participants in Security Activities took courses in “Business & administration” (67.9%), followed by courses in “Services” (24.9%). Meanwhile, the course fees of over 80.0% of the participants in the surveyed industries were paid by the establishments.