Hong Kong jobless likely to further drop in May: gov’t

But full employment is still a long way ahead.

The unemployment rate from March to May will likely fall further, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said, but it will not be within pre-pandemic level.

“At the rate of improvement in recent months, the unemployment rate announced later can soon fall back to the level of nearly a year ago, but it is different from the level before the epidemic,” Financial Secretary Chan said.

“Compared with the situation of nearly full employment, there is still a long way to go.”

Hong Kong has started to show signs of recovery after its economy expanded 7.9% in the first quarter, which he attributed to the government’s efforts to control the outbreak and the vaccination programme.

“To maximize the recovery of the economy, it is always indispensable to effectively prevent and control the epidemic, and to resume travel between people from the mainland and even outside the country,” he also said.

This comes ahead the Census and Statistics Department’s report on the March to May jobless rate.

The unemployment rate peaked in February to 7.2%, the highest in 17 years. It started to decline in March to 6.8% and further in April to 6.4%.

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