Hong Kong’s labour shortage to hit 180,000 by 2028 amid city’s rapidly ageing population

Hong Kong’s labour shortage is expected to worsen and reach 180,000 workers by 2028, driven by a rapidly ageing elderly population projected to account for almost a third of the city’s residents.

The Labour and Welfare Bureau on Thursday also predicted skilled technical staff, such as escalator mechanics and construction workers, would make up more than one-third of the total shortage.

The study, conducted in 2023, analysed 17 key sectors and gathered views from more than 1,000 industry players to determine the supply and demand of manpower in the coming five years.

The government predicted manpower supply to hit 3.56 million and demand to reach 3.75 million in 2028, which would result in a shortage of 180,000 workers, based on the assumption the economy would grow by 3.2 per cent each year.

The figure marked a 260 per cent increase compared with the shortage of 50,000 in 2023.

“The ageing population is our biggest challenge,” Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said. “The working population will shrink while the median age of workers will increase.”