Chapter 5 Employment Services
The Programme of Employment Services
www.labour.gov.hk/eng/service/content.htm| 5.1 | ||
The objective of the Employment Services Programme is to provide a comprehensive range of free employment assistance and recruitment services to help job seekers find suitable jobs and employers fill their vacancies. We achieve this by:
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| 5.2 | The principal legislation administered by this programme area includes Part XII of the Employment Ordinance (EO), the Employment Agency Regulations made under EO and the Contracts for Employment Outside Hong Kong Ordinance (CEOHKO). | |
| 5.3 | Part XII of EO, together with the Employment Agency Regulations, regulates the operation of employment agencies in Hong Kong through licensing, inspection, investigation and prosecution. | |
| 5.4 | CEOHKO safeguards the interests of local manual workers and those non-manual employees with monthly wages not exceeding $20,000 who are recruited by employers outside Hong Kong to work in other territories through the attestation of employment contracts for these jobs. | |
Our Work and Achievements in 2017 Employment Situation in Hong Kong |
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| 5.5 | In 2017, the labour market tightened on the back of a vibrant local economy, with the annual unemployment rate declining to its post-1997 low of 3.1%. For updated statistics on the labour force, unemployment rate and underemployment rate, please visit the webpage: http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp200.jsp?tableID=006&ID=0&productType=8 . |
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| 5.6 | The Labour Department (LD) recorded a total of 1 419 270 vacancies offered by employers of the private sector for free recruitment service in 2017. In the year, a total of 154 222 placements were secured. (Figures 5.1 and 5.2) | |
A Wider Service ChoiceServices offered at Job Centres |
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| 5.7 | Job seekers can browse vacancies at 13 job centres of LD and seek referral service provided by the staff or apply to the employers direct. Job seekers may also meet with employment officers who will provide job search advice as well as assist them in matching and finding suitable jobs in accordance with their individual needs and preferences. 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 |
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| 5.8 | The three industry-based recruitment centres of 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 |
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| 5.9 | Job seekers registered at 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. | |
On-line Employment Service |
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| 5.10 | Our Interactive Employment Service (iES) website (www.jobs.gov.hk) provides round-the-clock on-line employment service and comprehensive employment information. The iES website is one of the most popular government websites, recording around 211 million page views in 2017. It hosts a number of thematic webpages to provide dedicated employment information for specific clientele. Job seekers can also use the iES mobile application to look for suitable vacancies in the job vacancy database of LD anytime and anywhere. The mobile application recorded around 156 million hit counts in 2017. | |
| 5.11 | The Higher Education Employment Information e-Platform (www.hee.gov.hk) provides employment support for job seekers with higher education so as to enhance their understanding of the Hong Kong employment market and facilitate them to search and apply for suitable job openings. The e-Platform recorded around 2.49 million page views in 2017. | |
Central Processing of Job Vacancies |
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| 5.12 | Employers 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 13 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. | |
Special Recruitment and Promotional Activities |
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| 5.13 | 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. In 2017, we held different kinds of large-scale job fairs to cater for various needs of job seekers and employers from different sectors, including large-scale job fairs in Tuen Mun and Fanling to assist job seekers living in remote areas in securing employment, as well as thematic job fairs assisting ethnic minority and elderly job seekers to find suitable jobs and employers from retail industry to recruit employees. We also staged job fairs that provided employment and vacancy information on the Mainland to deepen job seekers’ understanding of the employment opportunities on the Mainland and broaden their choices in job search. Moreover, to enhance efficiency of the recruitment process and facilitate placements of job seekers in the vicinity of their residence, district-based job fairs were held at job centres to assist employers to recruit local residents and to enable job seekers to participate in job interviews without having to travel long distance. In the year, 18 large-scale job fairs and 946 district-based job fairs were held, attracting about 54 000 job seekers. | |
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| Career talk held at the “Career Expo for Middle-aged and Elderly Employment” | ||
Intensified Services for the NeedyMiddle-aged and Elderly Job Seekers |
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| 5.14 | LD provides dedicated employment services for elderly persons and promote their employment through various means such as setting up special counters at job centres to provide priority registration and job referral services for elderly job seekers, conducting employers' experience-sharing sessions, and organising employment briefings and job fairs targeted at elderly persons. | |
| 5.15 | The Employment Programme for the Middle-aged (EPM) assists the unemployed job seekers aged 40 or above to find work. Employers who engage an eligible middle-aged or elderly job seeker in a full-time or part-time permanent job and offer him/her on-the-job training are entitled to a maximum training allowance of $3,000 per month, for a period of three to six months. In 2017, a total of 2 642 placements were secured through the programme. | |
New Arrivals and Ethnic Minorities |
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| 5.16 | LD provides a comprehensive range of employment services to new arrival and ethnic minority job seekers through job centres. These include employment advisory service, job referral, tailor-made employment briefing and resources. Those who have difficulties finding jobs are encouraged to participate in various employment programmes to enhance their employability. We also proactively promote our recruitment activities to them so as to speed up their job search. | |
| 5.17 | Since September 2014, LD has implemented 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 our job centres, industry-based recruitment centres and job fairs. Moreover, since May 2017, we have engaged two Employment Assistants proficient in ethnic minority languages at two selected job centres on a pilot basis to strengthen employment support for ethnic minority job seekers, especially those of South Asian origins. Furthermore, large-scale and district-based inclusive job fairs are organised to enhance the employment opportunities of the ethnic minorities. | |
Work Trial Scheme (WTS) |
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| 5.18 | WTS seeks to enhance the employability of job seekers who have difficulties in finding jobs. There is no age limit for applicants. During the one-month work-trial without employer-employee relationship, participants take up jobs offered by participating organisations. On completion of the one-month work trial, each participant will receive an allowance. With effect from September 2017, the allowance has been increased from $6,900 to $7,600, of which $500 are contributed by the participating organisation. In 2017, a total of 173 job seekers were placed into work trials. | |
Workers Affected by Large-scale Retrenchment |
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| 5.19 | In major business closure or redundancy cases, 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 would help the affected employees find suitable jobs more effectively. In the year, we offered such special employment services to some 1 600 affected employees. | |
Job Seekers with Disabilities |
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| 5.20 | Our Selective Placement Division (SPD) offers employment assistance to job seekers with disabilities looking for open employment. Employment consultants provide personalised employment services, including employment counselling, job matching and referral and post-placement follow-up services. In 2017, SPD registered 2 833 job seekers with disabilities and secured 2 203 placements. (Figure 5.3) | |
| 5.21 | To strengthen the employment support for job seekers with disabilities, SPD launched a two-year pilot scheme in September 2016 to engage a non-governmental welfare organisation to provide professional psychological and emotional counselling service to job seekers with disabilities in need of this service. | |
Work Orientation and Placement Scheme (WOPS) |
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| 5.22 | WOPS facilitates open employment of persons with disabilities by encouraging employers to offer job vacancies to persons with disabilities through the provision of an allowance. An eligible employer who employs persons with disabilities having employment difficulties is entitled to an allowance equivalent to the amount of actual salary paid to an employee with disabilities less $500 per month during the first two months of employment, subject to a monthly allowance ceiling of $5,500. After the first two months, the employer is entitled to an allowance equivalent to two-thirds of the actual salary paid to the employee concerned, subject to an allowance ceiling of $4,000 per month, and for a maximum payment period up to six months. WOPS also provides pre-employment training to persons with disabilities with a view to enhancing their employability. In 2017, 802 placements were secured through the scheme. | |
Self Help Integrated Placement Service (SHIPS) |
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| 5.23 | SHIPS aims at improving the job searching skills of job seekers with disabilities and encouraging them to be more proactive in search for jobs, thereby enhancing their employment opportunities. In 2017, 282 job seekers with disabilities participated in the programme. | |
Interactive Selective Placement Service (iSPS) Website |
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| 5.24 | The 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 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 SPD to refer candidates to them for selection interview. The website facilitates employers to browse information on the work capacity of persons with disabilities more readily. At the same time, it helps persons with disabilities access various on-line employment services and other related support services. | |
Promotional Activities |
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| 5.25 | To enhance public understanding of the working abilities of persons with disabilities as well as to publicise the services of SPD and WOPS, SPD conducted a series of promotional activities, such as staging of exhibitions, production of publications and advertisements, broadcast of promotional videos, publicising promotional messages through newspapers, publications of employers’ associations, radio and television channels, public transport network, wall banners and mobile application advertisements, etc. during the year. In addition, a large-scale seminar was held for employers and human resources practitioners. Promotional visits were paid and publicity materials were sent to employers of different trades with a view to canvassing job vacancies for persons with disabilities. | |
Work Incentive Transport Subsidy (WITS) Scheme |
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| 5.26 | LD administers the territory-wide WITS Scheme which aims at helping low-income earners reduce their cost of travelling to and from work and encouraging them to secure or stay in employment. Qualified applicants may receive monthly subsidy of $600 (or $300 at half-rate). Up to the end of 2017, a total of 119 528 applicants received subsidies totalling $1,721 million. | |
Services for Young PeopleYouth Employment and Training Programme (YETP) |
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| 5.27 | To enhance the employability of young people, LD administers YETP, a “through-train” programme providing seamless and comprehensive training and employment support to young school leavers aged 15 to 24 with educational attainment at sub-degree level or below. | |
| 5.28 | Trainees can enrol on a year-round basis and are entitled to a full range of coordinated and customised training and employment support services, including pre-employment training, one-month workplace attachment training, on-the-job training 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. Employers who engage trainees under YETP and provide them with on-the-job training are entitled to a maximum training allowance of $3,000 per month per employee for six to 12 months. With effect from September 2017, the allowance payable to trainees who complete the one-month workplace attachment training has been increased from $3,000 to $4,500. The training allowance payable to the trainees who complete the pre-employment training has also been increased from $50 to $70 per training day. | |
| 5.29 | In the 2016/17 programme year running from September 2016 to August 2017, 2 614 young people attended pre-employment training and 2 633 trainees were placed into on-the-job training vacancies under YETP. | |
| 5.30 | YETP closely collaborates with training bodies and individual employers or employers of specific sectors to launch special employment projects, providing tailor-made pre-employment training and on-the-job training for young people. In the 2016/17 programme year, 64 special employment projects were launched involving employers in the aviation, healthcare, logistics, personal and business services, property management and retail industries, etc. | |
| 5.31 | In August and November, LD co-organised the “Solar Project 2017 - Dream Journey with YETP” concert and the Award Ceremony of Most Improved Trainees of YETP with Radio 2 of Radio Television Hong Kong respectively. The events showcased the creditable improvements of trainees after joining YETP and commended the caring efforts of training bodies and employers. Trainees’ successful experience constituted the best encouragement to their peers. It was also a sterling testimony to the achievements of trainees, training bodies, employers and the Government in nurturing the development of the younger generation. In the year, we also launched a newly-designed programme website, leaflets and posters to attract young people to join YETP. | |
Programme for Youths with Acute Employment Difficulties |
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| 5.32 | To strengthen the employment support for vulnerable youths, LD regularised and enhanced the employment project “Action S5” in 2017 by implementing a new project named “Career Kick-start” to offer on-the-job training of 12 months’ duration to young people with special needs through placements in non-governmental organisations (NGOs). A total of 72 youths enrolled in the project and commenced their on-the-job training during April to May 2017 in batches. | |
Youth Employment Support |
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| 5.33 | LD operates two youth employment resource centres named Youth Employment Start (Y.E.S.). The two 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 employability and support them to pursue self-employment. 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 2017, the two centres provided services to 72 878 young people. | |
Working Holiday Scheme (WHS) |
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| 5.34 | Since 2001, Hong Kong has established bilateral WHS arrangements with a total of 12 economies, including New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Japan, Canada, Korea, France, the United Kingdom (UK), Austria, Hungary and Sweden. WHS aims to provide an opportunity for our youths aged between 18 and 30 to enrich their global exposure and broaden their horizons, by experiencing foreign culture through living and working temporarily overseas while holidaymaking. At the same time, WHS allows youths of our partner economies to learn more about Hong Kong. | |
| 5.35 | Save for the UK and Austria which allow our youths to stay for up to 24 months and six months respectively, the remaining 10 partners issue working holiday visas to eligible Hong Kong youths to stay in their economies for up to 12 months for holidaying and taking up short-term employment to subsidise their expenses, and/or studying short-term courses (except for Ireland). | |
| 5.36 | These WHSs have been well received. As of end-2017, around 85 000 Hong Kong youths participated in WHS. LD will continue to enhance the publicity of WHS and explore with more economies to establish new WHS arrangements or seek to expand our existing bilateral arrangements in order to provide more choices and opportunities for our youths to participate in WHS. | |
Regulating Local Employment Agencies and Employment Outside Hong Kong |
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| 5.37 | LD monitors the operation of employment agencies through licensing, inspection and investigation of complaints. In 2017, we issued 3 119 employment agency licences and revoked or refused to renew six. As at the end of 2017, there were 3 081 licensed employment agencies in Hong Kong. A total of 1 846 inspections were made to employment agencies in the year. | |
| 5.38 | LD promulgated the Code of Practice for Employment Agencies (the Code) in January 2017 for compliance by the industry with a view to promoting professionalism and quality service in the industry. At the same time, we launched the Employment Agencies Portal (www.eaa.labour.gov.hk), which is a website dedicated to provide members of the public, including employment agency operators/staff, job seekers and employers, with updated information related to the regulation of employment agencies. | |
| 5.39 | To further strengthen the regulation of employment agencies, we introduced an amendment bill into the Legislative Council in June 2017 which proposed to substantially increase the penalties on employment agencies overcharging job seekers or operating without a licence, extend the scope of the offence of overcharging job seekers to include (in addition to the licensee) the management as well as persons employed by employment agencies, provide a legal basis for the Code and set out new grounds for the Commissioner for Labour to refuse to issue or renew or to revoke a licence. | |
| 5.40 | LD also safeguards the interests of local employees engaged by employers outside Hong Kong to work in other territories by attesting all employment contracts entered into in Hong Kong involving manual employees and non-manual employees with monthly wages not exceeding $20,000. | |
Regulating Labour ImportationSupplementary Labour Scheme (SLS) |
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| 5.41 | LD administers SLS which operates on the principles of ensuring the priority of local workers in employment while allowing employers with proven local recruitment difficulties to import workers at technician level or below. | |
| 5.42 | We provide active job matching and referral services for local job seekers to ensure their employment priority. Vacancies under SLS are widely publicised. 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. | |
| 5.43 | As at the end of 2017, there were 4 930 imported workers working in Hong Kong under SLS. | |
Policy on Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs) |
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| 5.44 | FDHs have been admitted to work in Hong Kong since the 1970’s. Apart from enjoying the same statutory rights and benefits as all employees in Hong Kong, FDHs are further protected by a written Standard Employment Contract (SEC), which prescribes that the employer has to provide to the FDH free accommodation with reasonable privacy, free food (or food allowance in lieu), free passage to and from the FDH’s place of origin and free medical treatment, etc. FDHs also enjoy wage protection through the Government-prescribed Minimum Allowable Wage (MAW), where 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 their statutory and contractual rights. LD spares no efforts in investigating the suspected offence cases and prosecution action will be taken out if there is sufficient evidence. | |
| 5.45 | In order to strengthen protection for FDHs and enhance their awareness of their rights and benefits, LD continued to organise a string of publicity and educational activities and maintained close liaison with governments of FDH home countries and their consulates in Hong Kong, NGOs serving FDHs and FDH employer groups to discuss matters relating to further protection of FDHs. | |
| 5.46 | With regard to publicity and education, we published in 2017 new leaflets to remind employers of FDHs about their responsibilities to take out employees’ compensation insurance and provide free medical treatment for FDHs, and to remind FDHs to beware of employment traps when using services of employment agencies in Hong Kong. A comic book was also published to educate FDHs and employers on their respective employment rights and responsibilities. The FDH Portal (www.fdh.labour.gov.hk) is now also available in Khmer apart from Filipino (Tagalog), Indonesian and Thai. This one-stop on-line platform facilitates FDHs to understand their entitlements before coming to work in Hong Kong. | |
| 5.47 | With regard to enhancing the rights and benefits of FDHs, LD had added a new clause on cleaning outward-facing windows to SEC for FDHs for contracts signed from 1 January 2017 onwards to safeguard the occupational safety of FDHs. Publicity and educational efforts would continue to be stepped up to raise the awareness of FDHs and the general public on occupational safety, particularly in respect of the safety precautions to be taken when cleaning outward-facing windows. | |
| 5.48 | LD will continue to explore new source countries for the importation of FDHs to meet the long-term demand of local families. Following the relaxation of the visa requirement on Cambodian nationals in March and the Secretary for Labour and Welfare’s visit to Cambodia in August to finalise the arrangements for the importation of Cambodian domestic helpers, the first batch of domestic helpers from Cambodia arrived by end-2017. | |
| 5.49 | As at the end of 2017, there were 369 651 FDHs in Hong Kong. About 54.4% of the FDHs in Hong Kong were from the Philippines and 43.2% from Indonesia. | |