Letters | Why import foreign workers when Hong Kong’s poor need jobs?

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Worker carrying out essential maintenance on the rooftop of the Hong Kong Coliseum in Hung Hom on October 24. Photo: May Tse

Published: 11:30am, 29 Oct 2024

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The recent rise in Hong Kong’s poverty rate to 20.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2024, up from 18.3 per cent in 2019, as highlighted by Oxfam’s Hong Kong Poverty Report 2024, reveals a stark reality. The percentage of economically inactive poor is increasing. Despite an overall population decline of 48,900 since last year, the number of economically inactive poor people has risen by 42,700.

Only 19.7 per cent of the poor are in the labour market, compared to 64.4 per cent of the non-poor. The government should deal with this problem by improving the welfare system and helping the unemployed poor join the workforce. The tax-based welfare model in Hong Kong is facing sustainability challenges because of the post-pandemic budget deficit. Therefore, introducing policies that remove employment barriers for the poor should be a primary focus.

In Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s policy address earlier this month, he introduced various policies, such as establishing a working group to promote the “silver economy” and improving childcare to support working parents in the labour force. However, for this approach to work, new jobs must be created and filled. The reality is that Hong Kong’s labour market has been shrinking since 2019.

Figures from the Census and Statistics Department show a decline in employed people from 2,863,708 in the second quarter of 2019 to 2,724,096 in the second quarter of 2024. This is despite the delicate balance between various emigration and immigration schemes during that period.

Importantly, this decrease in employment does not indicate recruitment difficulties since the number of job vacancies has also fallen from 73,462 to 69,444. To protect job opportunities for the local poor, both pro-labour groups and non-governmental organisations have raised concerns about importing more foreign labour. However, Lee’s policy address failed to address this concern.