Hong Kong's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 3.4 percent in July-September period from 3.2 percent in June-August 2008, reversing the decrease seen earlier in the year, revealed the latest figures released by the Census and Statistics Department here Monday.
Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Secretary for Labor and Welfare, warned that the September figures might not have reflected the impact of the global financial turmoil, which is now beginning to be felt.
"Looking ahead, unemployment is likely to rise further in the near term," he said, pointing to some sectors bound to be affected by a contraction in business triggered by the global economic crisis.
According to the department's latest statistics, provisional number of unemployed persons rose by around 4,900 from 129,100 in June-August to 134,000 in July-September.
The provisional underemployment rate, however, decreased from 1. 9 percent to 1.8 percent over the same period of last year as some summer workers returned to schools upon the start of the new academic year.
Comparing July-September with June-August period, increases in the unemployment rate were mainly observed in the wholesale and retail, restaurants, manufacturing and financing sectors.
As to the underemployment rate, decreases were mainly seen in the decoration and maintenance and transport sectors.
Cheung said the Labor Department will closely monitor the situation and stands ready to help the affected employees, vowing to continue enhancing its employment services and the competitiveness of the local workforce through education, training and retraining services and job search facilitation.
"In the long run, the implementation of the major infrastructure projects will help create employment opportunities and economic benefits," he said.
Cheung noted that the Hong Kong government had proposed to introduce a series of facilitating measures to improve the Small and Medium Enterprises Funding Schemes with a view to strengthening support to SMEs and will continue to discuss with them and listen to their views.
"I believe SMEs could benefit from these measures. I hope that employers could actively consider job restructuring or job sharing as an option to tide over the difficult period," he added.
Source:Xinhua
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