A total of 87 per cent of workers had their pay frozen or cut in the past year, a survey has revealed. But the survey of 1,294 Federation of Trade Unions members also found the jobless rate had fallen from 13.9 per cent in the first three months of the year to 11.4 per cent in the July-September period. The manufacturing industry was the worst affected, providing about 28 per cent of the total number of unemployed, followed by the construction, restaurant, transport and communication sectors. About 56 per cent of those polled who were jobless said they had been without a job for at least six months, up 4.6 percentage points from March. Underemployment was almost static at 5.3 per cent. Of those with jobs, 78 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively said their pay had been frozen or cut for the year, while 56.8 per cent were worried about being made redundant. Of the jobless in the survey, 47.7 per cent said they had quit seeking jobs because they could find no suitable vacancies. The union said the fall in unemployment might have been caused by the recent economic recovery but a more important factor was workers' increased willingness to compromise over their pay. 'At present, our workers are willing or forced to come to terms with a pay freeze, a pay cut and even reductions in benefits because they fear they will lose their jobs,' federation chairman Cheng Yiu-tong said. Of the jobless willing to return to the workforce, only three per cent cited 'wages too low' as the reason they had not taken jobs - showing that pay was not the vital issue, he said. The federation feared the situation would worsen as those taking part in the Government's youth pre-employment training programme and other courses began to enter the job market. It wants more resources for the development of 'green' industries such as waste recycling, which could create jobs for low-skilled workers, while major infrastructure projects should be broken into small-sized contracts, allowing local enterprises more opportunities to compete. The federation is to stage a protest march to Central Government Offices on Sunday to voice its demands and present a petition.
