The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the fourth quarter of 2015. Survey coverage comprises Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities; however, own-account workers are excluded. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2015, Wholesale & Retail Trade had 55,812 persons engaged, up by 12.0% year-on-year, with 35,446 working in Retail Trade. In December 2015, average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) of full-time employees rose by 4.3% year-on-year to MOP12,480. Transport, Storage & Communications had 10,319 persons engaged, up by 2.9% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in December rose by 1.0% year-on-year to MOP20,510. Security Activities had 10,621 persons engaged, up by 22.5% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in December rose by 11.6% year-on-year to MOP12,470. Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 851 persons engaged, up by 8.5% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in December increased by 11.5% year-on-year to MOP16,350. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2015, Wholesale & Retail Trade had 3,780 vacancies (68.8% in Retail Trade), down by 996 year-on-year. Vacancies in Security Activities (1,250) and Transport, Storage & Communications (895) went down by 163 and 88 respectively year-on-year. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, about 86.6% of the vacancies in Security Activities only required junior secondary education or lower, while 48.2% of those in Transport, Storage & Communications required senior secondary education or higher; besides, 51.3% of the vacant posts in Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had no preference in educational attainment. As for language skills, 75.3% and 44.6% of the vacancies in Retail Trade required knowledge of Mandarin and English; the respective rate in Security Activities was 66.4% and 39.2%. In the fourth quarter of 2015, the vacancy rate (10.9%), recruitment rate (5.4%) and turnover rate (4.7%) in Security Activities fell by 3.6, 2.8 and 1.0 percentage points respectively year-on-year, indicating a decrease in demand for human resources. In addition, the recruitment rate (14.3%) in Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities increased by 11.5 percentage points, while the vacancy rate (4.4%) fell by 8.9 percentage points, suggesting that some of the vacancies had already been filled. As regards vocational training in the surveyed industries, a total of 13,417 participants attended 783 training courses provided by the establishments in the fourth quarter of 2015 (including courses organized by the establishments or in conjunction with other institutions, and those sponsored by the employer); 65.0% of the establishments in Security Activities provided vocational training to their employees. Wholesale & Retail Trade had the largest number of participants (7,486), attending a total of 492 training courses. Analyzed by course type, 66.6% of the participants from Wholesale & Retail Trade and 40.6% from Transport, Storage & Communications attended courses in “Business & Administration”. All the industries had over 80% of their participants attending courses paid by the establishments.
