Chapter 5 Employment Services

The Programme of Employment Services

www.labour.gov.hk/eng/service/content.htm

5.1The objective of the Employment Services Programme is to provide diversified and free employment assistance and recruitment services to help job seekers find suitable jobs and employers fill their vacancies. We achieve this by:

• providing user-friendly employment and recruitment services to job seekers and employers;
• offering dedicated employment-related assistance and personalised services to vulnerable groups of unemployed people;
• assisting young people to enhance their employability and advising them on careers choice;
• regulating local employment agencies (EAs);
• safeguarding the interests of local employees employed by employers outside Hong Kong to work in other territories; and
• processing applications under the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme and ensuring employment priority for local workers in filling vacancies under the scheme.

5.2The principal legislation administered by this programme area includes Part XII of the Employment Ordinance (EO), the Employment Agency Regulations made under the EO and the Contracts for Employment Outside Hong Kong Ordinance (CEOHKO).

5.3Part XII of the EO, together with the Employment Agency Regulations, regulates the operation of EAs in Hong Kong through licensing, inspection, investigation and prosecution.

5.4The CEOHKO safeguards the interests of local manual employees and those non-manual employees with monthly wages not exceeding $20,000 who are employed by employers outside Hong Kong to work in other territories through attestation of employment contracts of such employments.

Our Work and Achievements in 2024

Employment Situation in Hong Kong

5.5The labour market remained tight in 2024 as the economy continued to expand. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stayed low in 2024, though it increased slightly to 3.1% in the fourth quarter from 2.9% a year ago. The underemployment rate also stayed low throughout the year, though it edged up to 1.1% in the fourth quarter from 1.0% a year ago. For 2024 as a whole, the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate were 3.0% and 1.2% respectively, as compared to 2.9% and 1.1% in 2023. For updated statistics on the labour force, unemployment rate and underemployment rate, please visit the webpage: www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/web_table.html?id=6.

5.6The Labour Department (LD) recorded 815 890 vacancies offered by employers of the private sector for free recruitment service in 2024. In the year, a total of 121 543 placements were secured (Appendices 5.1 and 5.2).

A Wider Service Choice

Job Centres

5.7Job seekers can browse vacancies at job centres of the LD and seek referral service provided by the staff or apply to the employers direct. Job seekers can meet with employment officers to obtain personalised employment advisory services. Employment officers will also assist job seekers to join the employment programmes of the LD. Various facilities such as digital display system, touchscreen vacancy search terminals, fax machines, toll-free telephones, computers connected to the Internet and resource corners are available for the use by job seekers.

Industry-based Recruitment Centres

5.8The three industry-based recruitment centres of the LD, namely the Recruitment Centre for the Catering Industry, the Recruitment Centre for the Retail Industry and the Construction Industry Recruitment Centre, provide free as well as one-stop and on-the-spot recruitment services for employers and job seekers, enhancing the efficiency of recruitment and job search.

Telephone Employment Service

5.9Job seekers registered at the LD may call our Telephone Employment Service Centre on (2969 0888) for job referral service. Through conference calls, staff of the centre can make arrangement for job seekers to talk to employers direct.

Online Employment Services

5.10The LD’s Interactive Employment Service (iES) website (www.jobs.gov.hk) provides round-the-clock online employment services and comprehensive employment information. The iES website is the most popular government job board in Hong Kong, recording around 429 million page views in 2024. It hosts a number of thematic webpages to provide dedicated employment information for specific clientele. Job seekers can also use the iES mobile application anytime and anywhere to look for suitable vacancies in the job vacancy database of the LD and receive notifications on newly posted vacancies matched by the system according to their pre-set search criteria. The mobile application recorded around 251 million hit counts in 2024.

Job Vacancies

5.11Employers who need to recruit staff can send their vacancy information to our Job Vacancy Processing Centre by fax (2566 3331) or through the Internet (www.jobs.gov.hk). The vacancy information is then disseminated through a network of job centres, three recruitment centres for the catering, retail and construction industries, the iES website and mobile application as well as vacancy search terminals located in various sites throughout the territory after vetting.

Recruitment and Promotional Activities

5.12The LD organises a variety of activities to promote our employment services and appeal for vacancies from employers. Job fairs are held to facilitate job seekers and employers to meet and communicate direct. Apart from large-scale job fairs staged at convenient locations, district-based job fairs are held at job centres to assist employers to recruit residents in the locality and to enable job seekers to participate in job interviews without having to travel long distance.

5.13In 2024, 18 large-scale job fairs were held, attracting over 32 000 job seekers. At the same time, 622 district-based job fairs were organised, with over 22 000 on-the-spot interviews arranged.

Services provided for targeted groups

Elderly and Middle-aged Job Seekers

5.14The LD provides dedicated employment services for the elderly and middle-aged persons and promote their employment through various means such as setting up special counters at job centres to provide priority registration and job referral service for the elderly and middle-aged job seekers, conducting employers' experience-sharing sessions, and organising employment briefings and job fairs targeting the elderly and middle-aged persons.

5.15The LD launched the three-year Re-employment Allowance Pilot Scheme (REA Scheme) on 15 July 2024 to encourage persons aged 40 or above who have not been in paid employment for three consecutive months or more to rejoin the employment market. Each eligible participant who has worked for 12 consecutive months will receive a maximum re-employment allowance of $20,000. Since the implementation of the REA Scheme and up to 31 December 2024, about 30 000 participants and about 9 500 placements had been recorded.

5.16In addition, the LD implements the Employment Programme for the Elderly and Middle-aged (EPEM) to encourage employers to hire the elderly and middle-aged and provide them with on-the-job training (OJT) through the provision of OJT allowance. Employers engaging each job seeker aged 60 or above who has left the workforce can receive a maximum OJT allowance of $5,000 per month for six to 12 months, while the maximum OJT allowance for engaging each unemployed job-seeker aged 40 to 59 is $4,000 per month for three to six months. The EPEM covers both full-time and part-time jobs. There were 4 443 placements eligible for joining the programme in 2024.

New Arrival and Ethnic Minority Job Seekers

5.17The LD’s job centres provide diversified employment services to new arrival and ethnic minority job seekers. These include employment advisory services, job referral, employment briefing and information resources. The job seekers in need are encouraged to participate in various employment programmes to enhance their employment opportunities.

5.18The LD implements the Employment Services Ambassador Programme for Ethnic Minorities to employ trainees of the Youth Employment and Training Programme who can communicate in ethnic minority languages to work as Employment Services Ambassadors at job centres, industry-based recruitment centres and job fairs. Moreover, the LD since 2023 has employed more ethnic minorities as employment assistants and general assistants to strengthen employment and related support for the ethnic minorities communities. To enhance the employment opportunities of the ethnic minorities, two large-scale and 11 district-based inclusive job fairs were respectively organised in 2024.

5.19The LD implements the regularised Racial Diversity Employment Programme, commissioning non-governmental organisations to provide one-stop employment services for ethnic minority job seekers through a case management approach. In 2024, the programme provided employment support for 475 ethnic minorities and recorded 138 placements.

Work Trial Scheme (WTS)

5.20The WTS seeks to enhance the employment opportunities of job seekers who have difficulties in finding jobs. There is no age limit for applicants. Participants take up jobs offered by participating organisations during the one-month work-trial with no employer-employee relationship. On completion of the one-month full-time work trial, the maximum allowance payable to each participant is $9,600, while the allowance for part-time work trial is calculated at an hourly rate of $57. Of this allowance, $500 are contributed by the participating organisation. In 2024, 237 job seekers were placed into work trials.

Workers Affected by Large-scale Retrenchment

5.21In major business closure or redundancy cases, the LD sets up hotlines for enquiry and special counters at job centres to provide special employment services to affected employees. We canvass suitable vacancies from employers to facilitate job search of the affected employees. In addition, under our iES website, a dedicated webpage displays vacancies offered by employers interested in recruiting job seekers who have lost their jobs in recent closure or redundancy exercises. This helps the affected employees find suitable jobs more effectively. In the year, we offered such special employment services to some 1 000 affected employees.

Job Seekers with Disabilities

5.22The Selective Placement Division (SPD) offers employment assistance to job seekers with disabilities who are fit for open employment. Employment consultants provide personalised employment services, including employment counselling, job matching and referral as well as post-placement follow-up services. In 2024, the SPD registered 3 214 job seekers with disabilities and secured 2 300 placements (Appendix 5.3).

Work Orientation and Placement Scheme (WOPS)

5.23The WOPS facilitates open employment of persons with disabilities by encouraging employers to engage persons with disabilities and render them with coaching and support through the provision of an allowance. The maximum allowance payable under WOPS to an eligible employer for engaging each person with disabilities having employment difficulties during the nine-month allowance period totalled $60,000. In 2024, WOPS recorded 1 134 placements.

Self Help Integrated Placement Service (SHIPS)

5.24The SHIPS aims at improving the job searching skills of job seekers with disabilities and encouraging them to be more proactive in job hunt, thereby enhancing their employment opportunities. In 2024, 326 job seekers with disabilities participated in the programme.

Interactive Selective Placement Service (iSPS) Website

5.25The iSPS website (www.jobs.gov.hk/isps) provides employment services for job seekers with disabilities and employers. The website enables persons with disabilities to register with the SPD, browse job vacancy information and perform preliminary job matching. It also enables employers to place vacancy orders, identify suitable job seekers with disabilities to fill their vacancies and request the SPD to refer candidates to them for selection interview.

Promotional Activities

5.26To enhance public understanding of the work abilities of persons with disabilities as well as to publicise the services of the SPD and the WOPS, the SPD conducted a series of promotional activities, such as staging exhibitions, producing publications and advertisements, broadcasting promotional videos, and publicising promotional messages through newspapers, publications of employers’ associations, radio and television channels, public transport network, wall banners and mobile application advertisements during the year. In addition, a large-scale seminar was held for employers and human resources practitioners. Promotional visits were paid to employers of different trades and publicity materials were sent to them to canvass more job vacancies for persons with disabilities.

Services for Young People

Greater Bay Area Youth Employment Scheme (GBA YES)

5.27The GBA YES aims at encouraging enterprises with business in both Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area (GBA) Mainland cities to employ Hong Kong young people in accordance with Hong Kong laws to work in the GBA Mainland cities, so as to foster their career development and the exchange of talents in GBA. In 2024, the scheme recorded a total of 2 186 job vacancies from 249 enterprises and 417 placements.

Youth Employment and Training Programme (YETP)

5.28To enhance the employability of young people, the LD administers the YETP, providing seamless and comprehensive training and employment support to young people aged 15 to 24 with educational attainment at sub-degree level or below.

5.29Trainees can enrol on a year-round basis and are entitled to a full range of services, including one-month workplace attachment training, OJT of six to 12 months, reimbursement of off-the-job course and examination fees up to $4,000 per trainee, as well as case management services rendered by registered social workers. Since 2023, YETP trainees can also enrol in diversified pre-employment training courses offered by the Employees Retraining Board. Employers who engage trainees and provide them with OJT are entitled to a maximum OJT allowance of $5,000 per month per employee for six to 12 months.

5.30In the 2023/24 programme year running from September 2023 to August 2024, 949 OJT placements were secured under the YETP.

5.31The LD staged a large-scale recruitment activity named “Youth Recruitment Day” in May, offering more than 2 000 OJT vacancies for young job seekers. In the 2023/24 programme year, the LD also organised 54 job fairs, involving employers in the retail, catering, construction and engineering, aviation as well as hotel industries, etc.

5.32In June, the LD organised the selection of YETP Most Improved Trainees Award 2024 to showcase the improvements of trainees after joining the YETP and commended the caring efforts of service providers and employers. Trainees’ successful experience constituted the best encouragement to their peers. It was also a sterling testimony to the achievements of trainees, service providers, employers and the Government in nurturing the development of the young generation.

5.33The YETP continued to operate the “Career Kick Start” project in 2024 to offer OJT of 12 months’ duration to young people with special employment needs through placements in NGOs with a view to enhancing their employability. The subsidy to NGOs was $9,600 per month per trainee. Participating NGOs are encouraged to assist trainees in securing full-time jobs in the open employment market by the provision of Placement Incentive.

Youth Employment Start

5.34The LD operates two youth employment resource centres named Youth Employment Start. The centres provide personalised advisory and support services on employment and self-employment to young people aged between 15 and 29 to facilitate them to map out their career path, enhance their employment opportunities and support them to start their own business. Services provided include career assessment, career guidance, professional counselling, value-adding training, self-employment support as well as up-to-date labour market information. In 2024, the number of services provided to young people by the two centres totalled 63 535.

Working Holiday Scheme (WHS)

5.35Since 2001, Hong Kong has implemented WHS with 13 economies, namely Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom one after another. The scheme provides Hong Kong youths aged 18 to 30 with the opportunities to broaden their horizons, allowing them to experience foreign culture through taking up short-term employment and enrolling in short-term courses (except Ireland) while holidaymaking in those economies with a working holiday visa, usually for a continuous period of 12 months. At the same time, youths of those economies may also do the same in Hong Kong under the scheme.

5.36The WHS has been well-received by young people. As at end-2024, more than 105 000 Hong Kong youths and some 17 000 youths from our partner economies participated in the scheme. The LD will continue to enhance the publicity of the scheme, and explore new partnership with other economies in order to provide more choices of WHS destinations.

Regulating Local Employment Agencies and Employment outside Hong Kong

5.37The LD regulates EAs in Hong Kong through licensing, inspection, complaint investigation and prosecution. In 2024, we issued 3 778 EA licences and revoked or refused to issue/renew three licences. As at end-2024, there were 3 799 licensed EAs in Hong Kong. A total of 2 006 inspections were made by the LD officers to EAs in the year.

5.38We promulgated a revised Code of Practice for Employment Agencies (the Code) in May 2024 to enhance the professionalism and service quality of EAs. Along with introducing additional standards for EAs, the revised Code empowers the LD to take actions against EAs’ malpractices more effectively, thereby strengthening the protection for service users. At the same time, the dedicated Employment Agencies Portal (www.eaa.labour.gov.hk) provides EA operators and staff, job seekers, employers and other members of the public with updated information related to EA regulation. The portal also publishes records of conviction of offences of overcharging and unlicensed operation, revocation or refusal of renewal of licence, and written warnings issued for non-compliance with the Code, so as to assist members of the public in making informed decisions when engaging EA services. The enhanced transparency also helps foster adoption of good practices by the industry.

5.39The LD also safeguards the interests of local employees employed by employers outside Hong Kong to work in other territories by attesting all employment contracts entered into Hong Kong involving manual employees and those non-manual employees with monthly wages not exceeding $20,000.

Regulating Labour Importation

Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS)

5.40To alleviate the manpower shortage across different sectors, the LD launched the ESLS on 4 September 2023 to enhance the coverage and operation of the Supplementary Labour Scheme (SLS), including suspending the general exclusion of 26 job categories as well as unskilled or low-skilled posts from labour importation for two years. On the premise of ensuring employment priority for local workers, employers with proven recruitment difficulties can apply for importation of workers at technician level or below under the ESLS.

5.41We provide active job matching and referral services for local job seekers, and widely publicise vacancies under the ESLS to ensure their employment priority. Local workers can attend tailor-made retraining courses, if appropriate, to better equip themselves to fill the vacancies. Applications from employers who have set restrictive and unreasonable job requirements or who have no sincerity in employing local workers will be rejected.

5.42As at end-2024, there were 15 826 imported workers working in Hong Kong under the SLS/ESLS.

Policy on Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs)

5.43FDHs have been admitted to work in Hong Kong since the 1970s. Apart from enjoying the same statutory rights and benefits as local employees, FDHs are further protected by a Government-prescribed Standard Employment Contract, which stipulates that employers must provide FDHs with free accommodation with reasonable privacy, free food (or food allowance in lieu), free passage to and from FDHs’ place of origin, free medical treatment, etc. FDHs also enjoy wage protection through the Government-prescribed Minimum Allowable Wage (MAW), under which employers have to pay FDHs a salary no less than the prevailing MAW when the contracts are signed. The Government attaches great importance to safeguarding FDHs’ statutory and contractual rights. The LD spares no efforts in investigating suspected offence cases and will take out prosecution if there is sufficient evidence.

5.44To strengthen the protection of FDHs and enhance the awareness of both FDHs and employers of their rights and obligations, the LD continued to organise a host of publicity and educational activities, and continued to maintain close liaison with the governments of FDH-sending countries and their Consulates-General in Hong Kong, NGOs serving FDHs, FDH employer groups and EA associations to disseminate information on employment matters.

5.45As at end-2024, there were 367 971 FDHs in Hong Kong, with 55% coming from the Philippines and 42% from Indonesia.