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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-kin and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (July 4):
Question:
The information from the Labour Department reveals that dedicated officers are arranged to follow up every case under the Job Matching Programme (the Programme) to identify suitable candidates for employers. In connection with the implementation of the Programme in the past five years (ie from 2006 to 2011), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of job-seekers registered in each year; among them, the number of registrants who had successfully secured employment as well as the percentage of such number in the total number of registrants;
(b) of the trades in which the registrants in each year were formerly engaged; the respective numbers of registrants who had been unemployed for less than three months and those for a period of three to six months, and the respective percentages of such numbers in the total number of registrants;
(c) regarding the registrants who had successfully secured employment in each year, of the types of jobs in which the majority of them were employed; the respective percentages of the numbers of those employed as office assistants, general workers and security guards in the total number of registrants who successfully secured employment;
(d) of the comparative figures on the types of jobs, wages, working hours, working environment, employee benefits and employees' compensation of the posts of the registrants who had successfully secured employment before and after they had changed jobs in each year; among them, the number of those registrants whose wages reached the median wage of their respective trades;
(e) of the number of registrants who had declined to accept employment with the matched employers in each year; among them, the respective percentages of the numbers of registrants who had declined a job offer on account of dissatisfaction with the job nature, wage level or working hours in the total number of registrants who had declined a job offer; and
(f) if any information on (a) to (e) is not available, of the reasons for that; whether the authorities will consider embarking on the collection of such information?
Reply:
President,
The Labour Department (LD) launched the Job Matching Programme (JMP) in 1995 to provide personalised employment assistance to job seekers. Under JMP, placement officers helped job seekers find work by introducing to them job vacancies that suit their qualifications and interests. To further strengthen the employment support for the unemployed, LD implemented the Pilot Employment Navigator Programme (ENP) in December 2010. The unemployed are assisted and encouraged to secure and sustain in employment through the provision of intensive employment counseling and financial incentive. Following the implementation of the Pilot ENP, JMP ceased operation at the end of 2010.
Regarding the Hon Wong Kwok-kin's question, my reply is as follows:
(a) The numbers of JMP participants and successful employment cases from 2006 to 2010 are as follows:
Year No. of JMP No. of successful
Participants employment cases*
2006 11 669 7 280
2007 9 024 7 015
2008 8 561 5 736
2009 10 508 5 611
2010 6 320 4 214
*Including employment cases secured by JMP participants through LD's introduction and cases which the JMP participants found work on their own accord. Since individual JMP participants may be employed in more than one job in the same year, the numbers of successful employment cases and JMP participants should not be directly compared.
(b) Breakdowns of the JMP participants by the industry of their employment and unemployment period prior to joining the JMP are listed at Annex 1.
(c) LD only kept the information on the occupation group of the employment cases secured through LD's introduction. We did not keep breakdown statistics on individual job titles. Breakdown of employment cases by occupation group is listed at Annex 2.
(d) LD did not collect information on the working hours, working environment, employee benefits and compensation etc of the jobs held by job seekers before or after joining JMP, and thus could not provide the relevant statistics for comparison.
LD only collected information on the wage level of the jobs secured by job seekers through LD's introduction after joining JMP. It did not keep the wage information of their employment prior to joining JMP. Thus, no comparison on wages could be provided. Moreover, as only the wage range of JMP participants was kept, no comparison with the median wage level of the respective trades could be made. Distribution of the employment cases by wage range is listed at Annex 3.
In respect of occupation, LD did not keep comparison statistics on the occupations secured by job seekers before and after joining JMP. LD only kept breakdown statistics on the occupational group of the jobs secured by job seekers through LD's introduction after joining JMP and the information has been provided in Part (c) of the reply.
(e) The numbers of job offers secured through LD's introduction but declined by JMP participants from 2006 to 2010 are as follows:
Year No. of job offers declined
by JMP participants
2006 1 238
2007 1 163
2008 1 127
2009 744
2010 598
The main reasons for declining job offers included the participants concerned having found other work or considering the nature of the jobs not suitable. LD did not keep further statistical breakdown on individual reasons.
(f) As JMP already ceased operation in December 2010, LD has no plan to collect further information on JMP.
Ends/Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Issued at HKT 14:26
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