Shortage of High-Skilled Workers in Hong Kong and Policy Responses
Kit-Chun LAM
Department of Economics
Hong Kong Baptist University
Renfew Road, Kowloon Tong
HONG KONG SAR
Email: kclam@hkbu.edu.hk
December 2000
Abstract
As Hong Kong is developing herself into a knowledge-based economy, there is a strong increase in demand for highly educated and highly skilled workers. At the same time, many other countries are also experiencing shortages in high-skilled workers as the development of hi-tech and IT sectors have become an international trend. When the increase in local supply of high-skilled workers falls short of the surge in demand, many industrialized countries turn to the international labour market and design active immigration policies to attract foreign high-skilled workers to come to work in their countries. Many high-skilled workers in Hong Kong have emigrated in the last decade while it is difficult for her to attract high-skilled immigrants. In this paper, we present an economic analysis of the shortage of high-skilled workers in Hong Kong. We study the changes in demand and supply of high-skilled workers and analyse what role natural population growth, immigration, emigration and return migration play in relation to the shortage of high-skilled workers. We also give an account of the policy responses of the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in her attempt to attract high-skilled professionals as well as the challenges for Hong Kong in face of the keen international competition.
Shortage of High-Skilled Workers in Hong Kong and Policy Responses
I. Introduction
As Hong Kong is developing herself into a knowledge-based economy, there is a strong increase in demand for highly educated and highly skilled workers. According to a Public Release by the Education and Manpower Bureau in November 2000, there will be shortages in manpower supply at the post secondary and first degree and above levels by about 85,000 and 31,000 respectively by the year 2005. At the same time, many other countries are also experiencing shortages in high-skilled workers as the development of hi-tech and IT sectors has become an international trend. For example, it was estimated that Europe and the U.S. alone will need 2 million more IT workers by 2002, Malaysia will require 15,000 more IT workers by the end of this year, Korea will need 50,000 by 2002. When the local supply of high-skilled workers falls short of the greater demand, many industrialized countries turn to the international labour market and design active immigration policy to attract foreign high-skilled workers to come to work in their countries.
Partly in response to the active immigration policy of other countries and partly because of the political and economic uncertainties related to the changeover of 1997, many high-skilled workers have emigrated to work in other countries including the United States, Canada and Australia. This represents a significant loss of human resources even though some immigrants chose to return-migrate to Hong Kong after a few years. At the same time, it has been difficult for Hong Kong to attract high-skilled workers from Mainland China under the current immigration policy. In this paper, we will study various issues related to the shortage of high-skilled workers in Hong Kong. In Section II, we will present an economic analysis of the shortage of high-skilled workers in Hong Kong. In Section III, we will study the potential sources of supply of high-skilled workers. We will then give an account of the policy responses of the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) in Section IV. We will conclude in Section V with a discussion of the challenges for Hong Kong in face of the keen international competition for high-skilled workers.
II. Demand and Supply of high-skilled workers
In the last twenty years, Hong Kong has experienced a structural change of the economy. As seen in Table 1, the employment share of the manufactured sector has declined from 41.1% to 11.5%, a decrease of more than 72%. On the other hand, the service sector has expanded considerably, especially the financing, insurance, real estate and business services which experienced a 197% increase in employment share. The skill intensities of different sectors are different. As shown in Table 1, the average education level of workers in the financing and insurance sector is much higher than that in manufacturing sector. More specifically, 27.4 % of the workforce in the financing, insurance, real estate and business services have university education, while only 9% of those in the manufacturing sector do. But all the sectors show an increase in college labour in their workforce. The largest increase can be found in the financing and insurance sector, which gains 16 percentage point in terms of the share of college labour over the last 20 years.
So an interesting question follows: is the increase in demand for high-skilled workers in Hong Kong mainly the result of the structural change of the economy, or is it due to a general increase in demand for high-skilled workers within all sectors. Decomposition of the increase in demand for college workers shows that the increase in demand for skilled labour in Hong Kong over the past twenty years cannot be explained significantly by structural shift, but rather by the general increase in demand for skilled workers within sectors.
On the supply side, there has also been a constant increase in the supply of high-skilled workers in Hong Kong as the average education level of the workforce increases. From Table 2, we see that from 1981 to 1999, the percentage of university and graduate degree holders has increased by 10 percentage point from 3.9% to 13.9%, while the share of primary schoolers has decreased drastically from 47.9% to 18.8%. However, the increase in supply of skilled workers cannot keep pace with the increase in demand, especially in the expanding skill-intensive sectors like financing, insurance and business services, and the IT sector.
The shortage of IT professionals is especially great in face of the development of IT sector. In 1998, the Vocational Training Council estimated that 44,847 IT professionals worked in Hong Kong. At that time, the demand was 48,710 IT professionals, implying a shortage of 3,863 workers. Based on an estimation of the supply of IT professionals at degree and sub-degree levels and the demand from IT sector, a recent consultancy study (1999-2000) on the manpower and training needs of the IT sector shows that the current shortage of IT professionals in Hong Kong can be as high as 6,000 while it can be as high as 30,000 by the year 2005. The detailed estimates are presented in Table 3.
Given the large shortage of high-skilled workers in Hong Kong, the next question we look into is how Hong Kong can fill the demand gap for these high-skilled workers.
III. Potential Sources of High-Skilled Workers
One source of growth in labour supply is from the growth in population. There are in general two major sources of increase in population: natural increase and the balance of arrivals and departures. For Hong Kong, the latter can be further classified into three types: (a) Hong Kong permanent residents to/from places other than Mainland/Macau, (b) one-way permit holders from Mainland China, and (c) other movements which include mainly expatriates and foreign domestic workers. Table 4 shows the contribution of various components to growth in population from 1985 to 1998.
Natural increase
Just as in many other countries, the fertility rate in Hong Kong has been declining over time. From Table 5, we see that the fertility rate falls to 981 per 1,000 women in the year 1998. At the same time, the life expectancy increases steadily over time. In 1998, the life expectancy at birth for males and females are77.2 and 82.6 respectively. They are among the highest by international standard. The result is that there is a gradual aging of population, and this trend is not favourable to growth in labour supply. This is confirmed in Table 4, where we find that the natural increase just contributes to around 11% of the growth in population.
Immigration
From Table 4, we can see that the increase in population and labour force of Hong Kong depends heavily on the balance of arrivals and departures. There is a daily quota of 150 legal immigrants from Mainland China, who come to Hong Kong holding a one-way permit. Thus there are around 50,000 to 60,000 one-way permit holders every year. The contribution of immigration from the Mainland contributes to about 30% of the total population increase in 1997.
Though immigration from Mainland China makes an important contribution to population increase in Hong Kong, it does not contribute with equal scale to the increase in supply of skilled labour. In the first place, a large proportion of the one-way permit holders are young children who are not in the labour force. They will only contribute to our labour force later as they grow up in the future. From Table 6a & b, we see that close to 85% of the male one-way permit holders are under age 15. The proportion is smaller for female, but still amounts to 40%. The high proportion of children among the immigrants from Mainland China limits the role of these immigrants as an immediate source of labour supply.
Besides, a lot of immigrants from Mainland China are of relatively low skill. One characteristics of the immigration flow from the Mainland to Hong Kong is that the latter does not have control over who will enter into Hong Kong. This decision is entirely up to the Mainland officials. As a result of the predominance of family reunion, a large proportion of the inflow are of young children and women, and the average education level of the immigrants is low. Table 7 shows the education attainment of employed persons from Mainland China having resided in Hong Kong for less than 7 years. The percentage of this group of new immigrants with tertiary education just amounts to 10%, while the percentage of total employed persons with tertiary education is at a much higher level of 14%.
Emigrants and returnees
The source of increase in labour supply in recent years has come mainly from 'HK permanent residents to/from places other than Mainland/Macau', a lot of which are returnees. Starting from the eighties, there has been a flow of emigrants (a lot of whom are received by Canada, the United States and Australia) in face of the uncertainty of the political and economic situation in HK after 1997. The number of emigrants over the last decade is reported in Table 8. The annual emigration flow has been decreasing from around 60,000 per year in 1991 to around 13,000 in 1999. But the accumulative effect over the last ten years has been significant, being more than 400,000 emigrants, most of whom are high skilled. According to Table 8, about 35% of emigrants in 1991-95 are in the professional, technical, administrative and managerial occupations.
In recent years, the outflow of emigrants has slowed down as Hong Kong has experienced political and social stability after the changeover. At the same time, the inflow of returning migrants and students has increased. From Table 4, the contribution of HK permanent residents to/from places other than Mainland/Macau amounts to 65% and 48% of the total population growth in 1997 and 1998 respectively. These returning migrants and students are of relatively high skill and have recently become an important source of supply of high-skilled labour in Hong Kong. The education attainment of employed returnees is shown in Table 9. The percentage of degree-holders among employed returnees is almost 63%, which is much higher than that for the entire employed population.
While Hong Kong has attracted a large number of returnees in recent years, they cannot make up for the talents Hong Kong has lost in the last decade as many emigrants have chosen to stay permanently in the receiving countries. Besides, the returnees are much more mobile than those who have never emigrated before. Since they have spent some time in the foreign countries, have built up networks overseas and are familiar with the job market situations, the cost for them to move overseas again would be much smaller than that for their initial move. These returnees are expected to be more responsive to changes in political conditions in Hong Kong as well as changes in relative economic attractiveness between Hong Kong and their former receiving country. Their loyalty and continual stay in Hong Kong cannot be taken for granted.
Expatriates
The immigration policy of Hong Kong is such that there is no quota on the number of expatriates corporations in Hong Kong can employ except for the Chinese nationals. But to avoid displacement of local workers, firms have to advertise their job locally for a certain period and prove that the skill required cannot be provided locally before they file their application to the Immigration department. Thus the number of expatriate professionals basically reflects the demand of firms in Hong Kong. A lot of these expatriates work in multinational corporations. Table 10 shows the number of employment visas issued to foreigners and the occupational distribution of these expatriates in 1998 and 1999. They are around 14,000 for both years. This number is not particularly large as a proportion of the total labour force in Hong Kong, but it amounts to about 3% of university graduates in the workforce, which is an important contribution.
However, one limitation of this source of supply of skilled workers is that while large international corporations may be able to recruit these high-skilled expatriates to work in their companies, it would be difficult for small and medium size local companies to compete for high-skilled expatriates. And we expect the difficulty to increase in face of the keen international competition for high-skilled workers.
IV. Policy Responses of the government of the Hong Kong SAR
Immigration policy
Since Hong Kong does not have control over the composition of the regular immigration inflow from the Mainland, she cannot rely on it as a significant source of supply of high-skilled labour. In face of the shortage of high-skilled workers, there is a strong demand from the business for the government to relax the immigration policy for the admission of talents, not just from the Mainland but also from other overseas countries.
The Government's policy on importation of labour in general is that local workers must be given priority and that employers who import foreign labour are genuinely unable to recruit local workers. There is no explicit quota for the admission of expatriates but to show that employers are genuinely unable to recruit local workers. For that purpose firms have to advertise for a specified period (normally 2 months) locally before application, and they are required to offer wage comparable to the market wage in Hong Kong. Many businesses, especially those in the rapidly changing IT industry think that the time lag is too long. In face of the keen international competition, the government recently simplifies the administrative procedures for the admission of expatriates. It is now no longer necessary to advertise for the specified period before application; instead government can prove the application that the skill is valuable but difficult to find in HK. Thus the time lag of hiring expatriates from overseas is much shortened.
The treatment of the admission of Mainland Professionals has been very different, and much tighter. The expatriate's category excludes the Mainland Professionals and there was no separate category for Mainland Professionals to come before the 1990.
The relaxation on the admission of Mainlander professionals for employment started with overseas Mainlanders in 1990, when the government realized that the Mainlander talents could be a good source of high-skilled workers. But the control of overseas Mainlanders to work in Hong Kong was still much tighter than the foreign expatriates. Among other things, it required overseas residence of two years. Family members also had to satisfy the 2-year overseas residence requirement if they wanted to come along. This is not required of other foreign expatriates. To attract more overseas Mainland professionals to come to work in HK, the overseas residence requirement has recently been relaxed to one year only.
The Hong Kong government also tried to relax the admission of Mainland professionals to fill the demand gap for skilled workers. A pilot scheme for the entry of Mainland professionals was implemented in 1994 with a quota of 1,000. At that time, the government and the public still worried that Mainland professionals would flood the labour market if there were no quota. But the scheme was not successful and it turned out that only around 600 Mainland professionals had entered. It is believed that the scheme was not attractive enough because of its various restrictions. Among these family members could not come along and the workers were not eligible for permanent residency. This unsuccessful scheme has ceased operating.
In December 1999, upon the recommendation of the Innovation and Technology Commission, a new Admission of Talents scheme was implemented for Mainland Professionals. It is made much more attractive than the pilot scheme. There is now no quota and no restriction of industry. The professional migrant can bring in their spouse and children, they are allowed to change employment after one year and can apply for permanent residence after seven years. These were not allowed before.
The government initially expected 1,000 or 2,000 applicants in the first year, but it turned out that the application was not enthusiastic. As of August 2000 (i.e. eight months after the implementation), only 323 entry applications for employment were received. Out of this 64 applications were approved and 55 applications were under process. These admitted talents by design are of very high education level. 37 out of the 64 have doctoral degree, 21 have master degree and the other 6 have bachelor degree. But some business people complain that the credential requirement may not be relevant in some cases, and has limited the usefulness of the scheme.
Education and Manpower Training
It is obvious that we cannot rely solely on external sources for the sustainable development of a knowledge-based economy in the long run. The skill of the local workforce has to be upgraded. In terms of numbers, the education level of the local workforce has been relatively low compared with neighbouring countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, not to say the United States. Only about 14% of our workforce have attained university education. In the policy address delivered in October 2000, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR announced the plan to expand tertiary education greatly so that in seven years, 60% of the secondary school leavers will receive tertiary education.
Besides the general education level, the IT training in Hong Kong is also falling behind Singapore and Taiwan. In relation to the need to develop the IT sector, the government has proposed various reforms in the education system in the recent few years, including much investment in IT equipment and training.
For companies, a $5 billion (HKD) Innovation and Technology Fund was launched in November 1999 to promote innovation and technology, and it is open to all locally incorporated overseas companies. A new Technology Training Scheme was also set up to provide assistance to companies to equip their staff with new technologies, including those which are not widely applied in Hong Kong and application of which will significantly benefit Hong Kong. It supports only non-government sub-vented organization in Hong Kong and the sponsored staff should be a permanent resident in Hong Kong. But there is much flexibility in the kind of training undertook. The staff can attend overseas or local training courses, or tailor made training courses for individual companies.
Technological Infrastructure
Recently the Hong Kong government also tries to attract Hi-Tech firms and entrepreneurs to set up businesses in Hong Kong by building various infrastructures. The major projects are the Hong Kong Science Park and the Cyberport.
The Hong Kong Science Park is fully funded by the government and aims to attract cutting edge companies involved primarily in sectors covering Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Precision Engineering to form strategic clusters. It is hoped that the Hong Kong Science Park will create an environment where knowledge-based businesses may thrive and grow. The construction started in 1999.
The government has reserved a site in the Science Park for the newly established Applied Science and Technology Institute (ASTRI). It is the mission of ASTRI to perform relevant and high quality midstream research and development for transfer to industry. Besides, it is hoped that the Institute can enhance Hong Kong's technological human resources development, be a focal point for attracting outside research and development personnel to work in Hong Kong, and to act as a spawning ground for technology entrepreneurs.
Another project that the government has started to help developing the IT sector is the Cyberport project. This is "an information infrastructure project which aims at creating a strategic cluster of leading information technology and information services companies and a critical mass of professional talents in Hong Kong." The government signed an agreement with a private developer in May 2000 to undertake the construction, financing and default/completion risks in accordance with the design and specifications pre-agreed with the government. The last phase of construction is expected to finish by end 2003. It is hoped that through this international information technology and services hub, experts and specialists would be attracted to work in Hong Kong and transfer of skills to local personnel be effected.
Improving the Environment
It is understood that money is not the only factor of consideration in the choice of location by the highly educated workers. The environment and quality of life associated with a location can be an important factor for the high-wage workers. A dramatic example of creating high quality living environment can be found in Balicamp in Indonesia. It is a hi-tech centre, which provides all the comforts of a five-star resort for computer-programmers to make sure that these workers are working in undisturbed comfortable environment, which is favourable to creative work, and lessen pressure. Hong Kong has long been known as a busy crowded city, but the environmental problem is increasingly a concern to both foreigners and the local people, particularly air-pollution. Some businesses began to voice out the importance of keeping our environment clean and nice, and are gaining support from the public. In the two recent Public Policy Addresses of the Chief Executive of the government of Hong Kong SAR, various measures to protect and improve the environment have been proposed. These include the introduction of comprehensive measures for diesel vehicles and the provision of $1.4 million in grants to diesel vehicle owners to encourage changes needed, the design of air pollution control measures, revisiting electronic road pricing to reduce vehicle emissions and congestion, formulating policies on promotion of waste recycling.
V. Challenges Facing Hong Kong
Keen competition & Active immigration policy of other countries
Countries who admit economic migrants based on skill level are in an advantageous position in their competition for high-skilled labour from the international labour market. In recent years, many countries like the United States have made special provision to attract IT talents. For example, the U.S. Congress passed a bill just recently that enlarges significantly America's quota for imported IT professionals. Beginning the year 2001, the three-year immigration program will allow U.S. companies to recruit 60,000 skilled foreigners, of which an estimated 240,000 will come from India. It is very difficult for Hong Kong to compete with these western advanced countries, which are the preferred receiving countries for many potential migrants, including the high-skilled workers in Hong Kong. A closer competition can be found in Singapore, who has set up the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore to work with the Manpower Ministry to address the Tech-skills shortage. Besides the competition for workers, Hong Kong has to compete with some neighbouring countries for foreign investors in her attempt to build up the technological infrastructure, since the science park is well established in Singapore and Taiwan, and even in Shenzhen, our neighbouring city across the border where the Industrial and Technology Park has been established for 15 years now, while Beijing is in the process of building one.
To Secure control on composition of immigrants from Mainland China
Now We have difficulty admitting high-skilledt immigrants from the Mainland since Hong Kong cannot choose her immigrants.They are sent by the Mainland authorities. Since immigration across the border is the major stable source of supply of workers, the challenge for the Hong Kong in relation to immigration policy is to g Hong Kong does not have control over the composition of immigrants from Mainland China. Most of the immigrants from Mainland China come for family union, and there is a constant influx of low-skilled workers across the border. As immigrants from Mainland China constitute her major source of increase in labour force in the long run, if Hong Kong cannot have control over the composition of immigrants, it is very difficult for her to establish an integrated immigration policy to compete for professional talents and build up a constant supply of high-skilled immigrants to her work force.
To Reduce Emigration & Attract Returnees
In this respect it is important that the Hong Kong people As shown earlier, return migrants can be an important source of increase in supply of high-skilled labour, but it is a volatile group. To keep them working happily in HK, if we just rely on tangible rewards, we may easily lose them out to the US. But we could try to do better is to establish their sense of identity and thus loyalty. Taiwan has been successful in attracting overseas Taiwanese to return and participate in the building up of her High-Tech industry. A study shows that the major reasons why overseas Taiwanese would like to return to Taiwan are that they "would be able to spend more time with friends and relatives", and "identify more strongly with home country and feel more at home there". Other important motivations include "Want to use what I have learned to help the nation" and "good job opportunities waiting at home". Before the reunion with Mainland China in 1997, people in Hong Kong were sometimes described as a generation without root, and there was a large outflow of emigrants in the late eighties and early nineties in face of the political uncertainty in Hong Kong. Now that Hong Kong has been reunited with the Mainland of China, perhaps she can learn from the Taiwan experience in motivating overseas and Mainland Chinese talents to come and settle in Hong Kong, while retaining the already scarce local high-skilled workers at the same time.
To Upgrade skill level of local workers
At present, the average schooling of workers in Hong Kong is lower than that in Singapore, Taiwan and S. Korea. Even if she can hit the quantitative target of raising the percentage of school-leavers attending universities to 60%, it will be more difficult to increase the quality needed for the development of knowledge-based economy and hi-tech industries. In a rapidly changing economy, creativity and forward-looking mentalities are important qualities. There are certain rigidities built-in the present education system which are not conducive to creativity, like over-reliance on book knowledge and the appeal to established authority. The complication here is that while reforming and transforming the education system takes a long process, the need for high-skilled workers is immediate.
To develop Hong Kong into a truly cosmopolitan city
There are basically two major streams of culture prevailing in Hong Kong: the traditional Chinese culture and the culture brought in mainly through the British colonists and the American businesses. A small group of successful Indian businessmen have been residing in Hong Kong for many decades. But their activities are localized in small areas of trade and it is not common yet for Hong Kong employers to recruit Indian IT talents. Compared with the Indians, the population of the Filipinos is significant and growing in Hong Kong in recent decades, largely due to the increasing number of Filipino domestic helpers. While Hong Kong has already benefited a lot from the importation of low-skilled workers from the Philippines, it seems that a change in mindset is needed before the people of Hong Kong can recognise the big potential gain from the importation of Filipino high-skilled engineers. While it may be more difficult for Hong Kong to compete for talents from advanced western countries, she should be in a better position to attract talents from neighbouring Asian countries for reasons of proximity and similarities in culture. It would do Hong Kong much good if she could draw in high-skilled workers from different neighbouring Asian countries to fill in the demand gap in various sectors. This can be an important advantage for Hong Kong in comparison with Mainland cities like ShenZhen, Shanghai and Beijing. Hong Kong has the tradition of being an international city, but there are basically two predominant cultures in Hong Kong right now, the Chinese heritage on the one hand, and the western cultural The
The Hong Kong Advantage
Despite various challenges Hong Kong is now facing, she remains attractive to a lot of foreign investors. According to a recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce, 95 percent of the American firms in Hong Kong predict that the future business environment in Hong Kong will be good or satisfactory, and 60 percent of them planned to expand their business in Hong Kong in the next 3 years. The major strength of Hong Kong in attracting foreigners and foreign businesses include her geographic position, her free port, the telecommunication network and other infrastructures, and the tax system. Her transparent legal institution and stable currency also put her in a favourable situation compared with many other Asian countries. If Hong Kong continues to upgrade the skill level of her workforce and the technological infrastructure, while developing a culture that embraces talents from neighbouring Asian countries more readily, it is optimistic that she could secure a good supply of high-skilled workers for her further development as a knowledge-based economy.
|
Table 1. Employment Share and Percentage College Labour by Industry: 1981-1999
|
|
|
Employment Shares |
|
Percentage college Labour |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Industry |
1981 |
1999 |
1981-1999 |
1981 |
1999 |
1981-1999 |
|
|
|
% Change |
|
|
Change |
|
Manufacturing |
41.2 |
11.5 |
-72.1 |
2.0 |
9.0 |
7.0 |
|
Construction |
7.9 |
9.4 |
18.9 |
3.2 |
5.3 |
2.0 |
|
Wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels |
19.1 |
29.9 |
56.2 |
3.2 |
10.2 |
7.0 |
|
Transport, storage and communication |
7.6 |
11.1 |
46.4 |
2.5 |
7.9 |
5.4 |
|
Financing, insurance, real estate and business services |
4.7 |
14.0 |
196.7 |
11.2 |
27.4 |
16.1 |
|
Services |
15.4 |
23.2 |
50.7 |
9.1 |
19.7 |
10.6 |
|
Unclassifiable |
4.0 |
0.9 |
-78.3 |
3.0 |
9.5 |
6.5 |
|
Total |
100.0 |
100.0 |
0.0 |
3.9 |
13.9 |
10.0 |
Sources: 1981 from Census reports, 1999 from General Household Survey, Census and Statistics Department
Table 2. Share of Different Skill-Categories of Labour Input, 1981-1999
|
Education Level |
1981 |
1986 |
1991 |
1996 |
1999 |
|
Primary 6 or Below |
47.9 |
37.3 |
28.5 |
21.0 |
18.8 |
|
Form 1 - Form 7 |
44.4 |
53.9 |
57.3 |
59.5 |
58.2 |
|
Post-secondary + Non-degree |
3.8 |
3.5 |
6.7 |
6.2 |
9.1 |
|
Degree + Graduate |
3.9 |
5.3 |
7.4 |
13.3 |
13.9 |
|
Total |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
Sources: 1981-96 from Census reports, 1999 from General Household Survey, Census and Statistics Department
Table 3. Shortage of IT Professionals
Source: Consultancy Study on the Manpower and Training Needs of the Information Technology Sector,
Education and Manpower Bureau, 2000.
|
Table 4. Population Growth by Component, end-1995 to end-1998 |
|
|
|
|
|
1995-1996 |
1996-1997 |
1997-1998 |
|
|
|
|
|
(1) Population growth [(2) + (3)] |
151,252 |
195,845 |
188,453 |
|
(2) Natural increase |
32,815 |
28,106 |
20,921 |
|
(3) Balance of arrivals and departures# |
+118,437 |
+167,739 |
+167,532 |
|
(a) HK permanent residents to/from |
+63,942 |
+127,036 |
+89,867 |
|
places other than Mainland/Macau |
|
|
|
|
(b) One-Way permit holders |
+61,179 |
+50,286 |
+56,039 |
|
(c) Other Movements |
-6,684 |
-9,583 |
+21,626 |
Note #: "+" indicates a net inflow while "-" indicates a net outflow
Source: Census and Statistics Department, Special Topic Report No. 25, May 2000
Table 5. Fertility Rate and Life Expectancy
Fertility Life Expectancy Life Expectancy
Year Rate at birth for Males at birth for Females
1988 1 400 74.4 79.9
1989 1 296 74.2 80.0
1990 1 272 74.6 80.3
1991 1 281 75.2 80.7
1992 1 347 74.8 80.7
1993 1 342 75.3 80.9
1994 1 355 75.7 81.5
1995 1 295 76.0 81.5
1996 1 185 76.3 81.8
1997 1 112 76.8 82.2
1998 981 77.2 82.6
Source: Information Services Department
Table 6.Population change by component by sex by age, 1997-98
|
Sex/Age
group |
Changing in the local
population
(including births,
deaths and aging) |
Balance of arrivals and departures |
Total |
|
HK permanent
resident to/from
places other than
Mainland/Macau |
One-way
permit
holder |
Other
movements |
|
Male |
|
|
|
|
|
|
0-14 |
-18,293 |
-397 |
15,486 |
-2,084 |
-5,288 |
|
15-24 |
-3,308 |
741 |
2,109 |
-551 |
-1,009 |
|
25-34 |
-19,502 |
15,391 |
317 |
4,837 |
1,043 |
|
35-44 |
11,857 |
22,177 |
711 |
4,211 |
38,956 |
|
45-54 |
26,210 |
12,258 |
364 |
2,990 |
41,822 |
|
55-64 |
-2,399 |
5,984 |
189 |
969 |
4,743 |
|
65+ |
14,960 |
3,966 |
204 |
-479 |
18,651 |
|
Total |
9,525 |
60,120 |
19,380 |
9,893 |
98,918 |
|
Female |
|
|
|
|
|
|
0-14 |
-18,074 |
-283 |
14,685 |
-879 |
-4,551 |
|
15-24 |
-7,985 |
1,027 |
2,149 |
12,730 |
8,191 |
|
25-34 |
-22,238 |
8,205 |
3,601 |
8,484 |
-1,948 |
|
35-44 |
19,809 |
7,103 |
9,036 |
-4,740 |
31,208 |
|
45-54 |
30,033 |
6,447 |
3,305 |
-997 |
38,788 |
|
55-64 |
-4,119 |
4,126 |
2,351 |
-1,187 |
1,171 |
|
65+ |
13,970 |
3,122 |
1,262 |
-1,678 |
16,676 |
|
Total |
11,396 |
29,747 |
36,659 |
11,733 |
89,535 |
Source: Census and Statistics Department, Special Topic Report No.25, May 2000
|
Table 7. Education Attainment of Employed Persons from the Mainland of China having resided in Hong Kong for less than 7 years
|
|
|
|
|
Employed persons from the mainland of China |
Total
employed
population |
|
|
Male |
|
Female |
|
Overall |
|
|
Educational
attainment |
No. of persons
('000) |
% |
No. of persons
('000) |
% |
No. of persons
('000) |
% |
% |
|
No schooling/
kindergarten |
0.1 |
0.4 |
3.0 |
5.7 |
3.0 |
4.3 |
1.7 |
|
Primary |
2.7 |
14.0 |
18.5 |
35.8 |
21.2 |
29.9 |
17.2 |
|
Secondary/
matriculation |
13.6 |
71.4 |
26.6 |
51.5 |
40.2 |
56.8 |
58.3 |
|
Tertiary |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-Non-degree |
0.8 |
4.2 |
2.1 |
4.0 |
2.9 |
4.1 |
8.9 |
|
-Degree |
1.9 |
10.0 |
1.5 |
3.0 |
3.4 |
4.9 |
13.9 |
|
Total |
19.0 |
100.0 |
51.7 |
100.0 |
70.8 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
Source: Census and Statistics Department, Special Topic Report No.25, May 2000
Table 8. Emigrants and Returnees 1987-1999
|
Year |
Emigrants |
Professional, technical, administrative and managerial occupations |
Returnees to Hong Kong |
|
1987 |
30000 (around) |
- |
- |
|
1988 |
45800 |
- |
- |
|
1989 |
42000 |
- |
- |
|
1990 |
62000 |
- |
- |
|
1991 |
60000 |
21000 (35.0%) |
- |
|
1992 |
66000 |
23000 (34.8%) |
- |
|
1993 |
53000 |
18000 (34.0%) |
10% Emigrants from yr 83-92 |
|
1994 |
62000 |
21000 (33.9%) |
12% Emigrants from yr 85-94 |
|
1995 |
43000 |
15700 (36.5%) |
12% Emigrants from yr 85-94 |
|
1996 |
40300 |
- |
12% Emigrants from yr 85-94 |
|
1997 |
30900 |
- |
- |
|
1998 |
19300 |
- |
- |
|
1999 |
12900 |
- |
- |
Sources: Hong Kong 1990-1999, Information Services Department
Table 9. Education Attainment of Returnees
|
|
Employed returnees |
|
Total
employed
population |
|
|
Male |
|
Female |
|
Overall |
|
|
Educational
attainment |
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
Primary and below |
4.4 |
|
1.4 |
|
3.3 |
|
18.9 |
|
Secondary/
matriculation |
22.7 |
|
22.9 |
|
22.8 |
|
58.3 |
|
Tertiary |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-Non-degree |
9.0 |
|
15.0 |
|
11.3 |
|
8.9 |
|
-Degree |
63.9 |
|
60.7 |
|
62.7 |
|
13.9 |
|
Total |
100.0 |
|
100.0 |
|
100.0 |
|
100.0 |
Source: Census and Statistics Department, Special Topic Report No.25, May 2000
Table 10. Number of Employment Visas Issued to Expatriates
(Outside the Talents Scheme)
| |
1998 |
1999 |
|
Investors |
238 |
257 |
|
Technical Professionals |
2,891 |
2,481 |
|
Administrators, managers and Professionals |
7,373 |
6,953 |
|
Others (e.g. Representatives of overseas co.) |
3,885 |
4,071 |
|
Total |
14,387 |
13,762 |
Source: Immigration Department
References
Census and Statistics Department, Report of the Population Census, Various Years
---------------------, Report of the General Household Survey, March 1999
---------------------, Special Report No. 25, May 2000.
Chanda, Nayan, "The Tug of War for Asia's Best Brains" in Far Eastern Economic Review, November 9, 2000
Education and Manpower Bureau, Public Release on Manpower projection to 2005 and
prospects of middle-aged workers ,November 2000
--------------------, Executive Summary, Consultancy Study on Manpower and Training Needs of the Information Technology Sector, 2000.
Information Services Department, Government of the Hong Kong SAR
Murphy, Kevin M. and Welch, Finis. (1993), "Industrial Change and the Rising Importance of Skill," in S.Danziger and Peter Gottschalk, eds., Uneven tides: Rising inequality in the 1980s. Russell Sage Foundation Press, 101-32.
San, Gee & Su, Chien-Chung, "The Reverse Brain Drain Phenomenon in Taiwan - Contributory Factors and the Impact on Industrial Technology", paper presented in the Taipei International Conference on Labour Market Transition and Labour Migration in East Asia organized by the Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica) on 21-23 June, 1999 in Taipei, Taiwan
Singtao Daily, 2000/12/09
The Government of HKSAR region, The Policy Address by the Chief Executive, 1998-2000.
Website of Cyberport, http://www.info.gov.hk/itbb/english/cyberprot/content.htm
Website of the Hong Kong Science Park, http://www.hksciencepark.com/
