Hong Kong construction, catering sectors pessimistic despite dip in unemployment

Hong Kong’s construction and catering sectors remain pessimistic about their recovery, despite a decline in unemployment rates, citing a lack of new private development projects and unattractive wages for junior positions in the food and beverage industry.

Two industry representatives made the remarks on Thursday, after the government announced the latest unemployment figure of 3.8 per cent over the past three months, marking the first drop since mid-2023.

The latest rate is 0.1 percentage points lower than the 3.9 per cent recorded for the July to September period, when unemployment reached a three-year high.

Chau Sze-kit, chairman of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, said that the unemployment rate for his sector fell by 0.2 percentage points from the 7.2 per cent reported for the previous three-month period.

“However, compared with the previous few rounds of unemployment figures, there are still fluctuations and they remain at a generally high level, so we cannot confidently say that the industry has recovered,” he told a radio programme.

“If we compare the figures year on year, based on the number of construction permits issued, the number of projects this year has dropped significantly.”