Policy Address
Stepping Up Efforts to Combat Unemployment
Labour Situation
133. Affected by the global and local epidemic, Hong Kong’s labour market has come under immense pressure. To help workers find a way out of the predicament, the Government has to make every effort to restore the economy, create more jobs, increase training and retraining opportunities, step up manpower matching and enhance the safety net of the social welfare system.
Creating Employment
134. Under the second round of the AEF, we launched a Job Creation Scheme whereby a total of 30 000 time-limited job opportunities would be created for people with different academic qualifications and skill sets. So far, about 29 000 jobs have been created in the public and private sectors, of which over 10 000 have been filled. I notice that the schemes for industries with more promising prospects are particularly popular. For example, the Financial Services Development Council has received an allocation of $180 million to launch the Financial Industry Recruitment Scheme for Tomorrow (FIRST), under which a monthly government subsidy of $10,000 will be provided to employers for each job quota, and nearly all the 1 500 quotas have been successfully taken up by eligible financial services companies within three weeks upon the launch of the scheme.
