The Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the second quarter of 2024 covers Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities. However, the self-employed are excluded.
Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the demand for manpower continued to increase amid the further recovery of the local economy. At the end of the second quarter of 2024, number of persons engaged in Wholesale & Retail Trade (68,846) grew by 7.7% year-on-year, with those working in Retail trade (44,013) rising by 8.9%. Besides, numbers of persons engaged in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector (14,505), Security Activities (13,033) and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities (964) went up by 0.8%, 1.9% and 2.0% respectively.
In June, average earnings (excluding irregular remuneration) of full-time employees in Security Activities (MOP13,550) rose by 9.2% year-on-year, due mainly to the increases in salaries and working hours. In addition, earnings of those in the Transport, Storage & Communications sector (MOP21,990) and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities (MOP19,740) went up by 3.5% and 3.0% respectively year-on-year, while earnings of those in Wholesale & Retail Trade (MOP14,570) decreased by 1.6%.
At the end of the second quarter, job vacancies in Retail Trade (1,627) went down by 911 year-on-year; the job vacancy rate (4.3%), the employee recruitment rate (3.9%) and the employee turnover rate (6.1%) dropped by 2.9, 2.1 and 0.1 percentage points respectively, which implied that the vacant posts in Retail Trade were gradually filled. As for the Transport, Storage & Communications sector, number of job vacancies (913) increased by 128; the job vacancy rate (6.5%), the employee recruitment rate (8.6%) and the employee turnover rate (9.2%) showed respective growth of 0.7, 2.3 and 3.4 percentage points, indicating that there were still many vacant posts to be filled in the sector.