The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the first quarter of 2023. Survey coverage for this quarter comprises Manufacturing; Electricity, Gas & Water Supply; Hotels; Restaurants; Child-care and Elderly Care.

At the end of the first quarter of 2023, Hotels had 45,801 full-time employees, down by 3.3% year-on-year, their average earnings (excluding irregular remuneration) in March increased by 3.7% year-on-year to MOP19,960.

Restaurants had 22,605 full-time employees, a decrease of 1.2% year-on-year. Their average earnings in March rose by 5.1% year-on-year to MOP10,250, which, however, represented a drop of 1.7% compared to the same month of 2019.

Manufacturing had 7,492 full-time employees, down by 6.6% year-on-year; average earnings in March increased by 4.6% to MOP12,630. Number of full-time employees in Electricity, Gas & Water Supply went down by 0.6% year-on-year to 1,079, average earnings in March edged down by 0.6% to MOP30,380.

Child-care had 1,507 full-time employees, down by 2.0% year-on-year; their average earnings in March edged up by 0.1% to MOP16,410. Number of full-time employees in Elderly Care grew by 8.1% year-on-year to 1,350, and their average earnings went up by 1.7% to MOP16,310.

With the gradual recovery of the economy, the demand for manpower increased. At the end of the first quarter, job vacancies in Hotels (2,611), Restaurants (2,099) and Manufacturing (472) went up by 2,066, 942 and 172 respectively year-on-year. For the job vacancies in Hotels, 47.8% required only junior secondary education or lower, while 90.7% and 33.2% required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively.

In the first quarter, the job vacancy rate (5.4%) and the employee recruitment rate (9.7%) of Hotels rose by 4.3 and 6.8 percentage points respectively year-on-year. As for Restaurants, the job vacancy rate (8.5%) and the employee recruitment rate (5.3%) went up by 3.7 and 0.4 percentage points respectively; while the employee turnover rate (4.4%) decreased by 2.8 percentage points. The figures indicated an increase in demand for manpower in the above two industries in this quarter.