THE unemployed are having to queue from as early as 5 am to get help from the Labour Department's job centres.
The nine centres, inundated by the highest number of jobless people for many years, are also having to deal with hundreds of students searching for summer work.
Most centres are able to help only 200 to 240 job-hunters a day so unemployed workers have begun arriving at the centres before dawn.
'The situation is getting very bad here,' a Labour Department staff member said at one job centre.
The first 200 people in the queue get a chit telling them when to come for an interview, but those remaining have to come back the following day and queue again.
Stanley Wu Tak-wing, 19, received a chit on Friday after he began queuing four hours before the Wan Chai centre opened at 9 am.