With unemployment languishing at 7.3 per cent, two of the main factors preventing professionals and managers from finding new employment are flagging self-confidence and a lack of effective networking skills, according to the Getting Back to Work Foundation.
Registered as a charity in 2002, the foundation was set up by Nigel Cumberland, founder of executive recruitment firm St George's Consulting. The aim of the non-profit making organisation is to help professionals and managers in Hong Kong find jobs.
Ralph Leonard, who manages the foundation, said: 'Nigel was a recruiter at the time the market started to weaken and he was being approached by a number of people looking for work, repeatedly. But each time they had not really changed or come up with a different approach. It was just the same thing over and over again.
'So he set up the foundation with the idea of holding seminars and workshops so that people who attend can gain back some of their confidence and receive up-to-date market knowledge to allow them to hone their skills.
'People who attend our seminars should be better able to target and present themselves to get back to work that much faster.'
Since its first official seminar in January last year, the foundation has seen more than 1,200 people pass through its doors. Most participants are unemployed, middle-level managers and professionals, aged between 25 and 50, who earn upwards of $20,000 a month and fall into the 'sandwich' class.
With the impact of negative equity and the limited support in the market, these were the workers who were hurting the most, Mr Leonard said.