ANOTHER MONTH, another set of seemingly-painful unemployment figures and downsizing at enterprises, big and small. Since July, more than 2,200 workers were reported to have been jettisoned by their employers. This month alone has seen, among other headline-hitting job cuts, 100 workers losing their jobs at the Hotel Inter-Continental (previously The Regent) and 80 workers shed by Gammon Construction. A whiff of change is out there, along with calls by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's close aides urging locals to 'go north' to seek careers, in what is viewed as a co-ordinated campaign by the Tung administration. In February, Nellie Fong Wong Kut-man, a member of Mr Tung's quasi-cabinet Executive Council, accused local people of being 'too lazy' and 'too dependent'. She advised youngsters to go to the mainland to seek jobs. Mrs Fong's 'go north' call was echoed by Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung, and since then similar remarks have been made by officials. Michael Tien Puk-sun, chairman of the G2000 retail group and a brother of the chairman of the pro-business Liberal Party James Tien Pei-chun, recently called on firms to explore opportunities on the mainland. Obviously, a shrinking economy does Hong Kong workers no favours. This is a tough moment at which radical reforms to improve the competitiveness of the SAR and its workforce are badly needed. But asking people to go to the north to seek jobs will not help, analysts have warned. Social scientist Dr Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, a lecturer at the Polytechnic University's department of applied social studies, even labels it 'irresponsible'. The Government has a role to play in disseminating information on the mainland job market to Hong Kong workers, says Dr Cheung, if the administration is serious about having more locals seeking careers across the border. He says the Labour Department currently only posts job vacancies available in Hong Kong firms. 'It is flatly irresponsible for our officials to just say go to the mainland and find jobs.' Dr Cheung agrees it is an irreversible trend that more Hong Kong people will work on the mainland as Hong Kong integrates with the economy of southern China. 'But it [the Government] is not playing Survivor [the television series]. A responsible government should not just let its people try their luck in a place with entirely different social, economic and political systems.' Dr Cheung adds: 'There must be co-ordinated support. At least, the Government can tell people what types of jobs are wanted on the mainland.' At present, Jobsdb.com.hk and Go2xpert.com are among the more popular job-search Web sites for Hong Kong workers seeking mainland jobs. A recent survey by Go2xpert.com shows the average monthly salary for a job as information technology manager at a private enterprise on the mainland would pay up to 10,236 yuan (about HK$9,650) a month. A job with the same title and similar job specifications could offer more than $30,000 in Hong Kong. Hong Kong employees on the mainland enjoyed pay rises of up to 15.6 per cent between May last year and June this year, according to a poll conducted by the Hong Kong People Management Association and Baptist University, released this month. In the coming year, mainland workers are expected to receive average pay rises of up to 3.7 per cent, while workers in Hong Kong can expect widespread salary freezes and redundancies. Last Thursday, the civil service was under pressure to introduce pay cuts after an unprecedented move in the legislature where eight members of the Liberal Party announced a personal 10 per cent pay cut to 'endure the hard times' with the public. As China tries to build its companies into world-class entities, a growing number are looking for senior managers and professionals. And they are willing to pay internationally competitive salaries to receive them. The most dramatic signal of change came last February when the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) hired one of Hong Kong's senior stock-market regulators, Laura Cha Shih May-lung, as vice-chairman. Ms Cha's predecessor, former Securities and Futures Commission deputy chairman Michael Wu Wai-chung, also worked as a CSRC consultant before becoming a vice-president at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In the same month, Premier Zhu Rongji said the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, was seeking a new deputy governor from within Hong Kong's financial community. According to some employment firms in Guangzhou, positions for which Hong Kong employees are most needed include financial consultants, accountants, property managers, information technology professionals, interior designers and hotel managers. Angela Lam Siu-wai, a senior associate at Greater China Associate, a head-hunting consultancy, says Hong Kong's executives have been more willing to work on the mainland in recent years. 'In the past, people insisted they must stay in Hong Kong, despite having to travel to the mainland for business frequently. But recently, more people are willing to accept staying on the mainland to work.' But willingness to go north alone is not enough, says Ms Lam - 'China experience' and proficiency in Putonghua are vital. 'Many Hong Kong people do not have a good command of Putonghua. Their level is good for travelling, but not for working in China. 'The advantage of better English proficiency has quickly been diminishing. Many mainlanders speak English more fluently than us.' Ms Lam suggests Hong Kong employees should be prepared for salary cutbacks when working on the mainland, although this is not necessarily the case for some senior posts. But unionist legislator Leung Fu-wah, vice-chairman of the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions, says most of the jobs available on the mainland are for professionals and bear little relevance to grassroots workers who have been hardest hit by the economic recession. China is never in short supply of unskilled manual labour. About 60 per cent of China's 1.3 billion people live in rural areas, where education is limited. Some analysts point out that the mainland has its own unemployment problem. Its economy had been enjoying an annual seven per cent to eight per cent growth rate for the past decade, but economists warn the pace could be halved by a global recession. There are about 400 million people in coastal China, most of whom are gainfully employed, according to the State Development and Planning Commission. There are about 15 million unemployed in this coastal region, representing about a four per cent unemployment rate. Officially, between 1995 and 1999, urban unemployment rose from 2.9 per cent to 3.1 per cent. That could be an understatement. One problem is defining 'unemployed'. In China, only recently laid-off workers are counted as out of work. But high school and university graduates unsuccessfully looking for jobs are not included. Last Tuesday, five leading business groups - the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, General Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Manufacturers' Association, Federation of Hong Kong Industries and Real Estate Developers Association - called for the immediate 24-hour opening of border crossings to help revive the economy. Although all agreed the border opening might have a negative short-term impact on retail and property prices, they maintained it was in Hong Kong's long-term interest. How this can help Hong Kong's jobless remains to be seen and, in the meantime, the Government has no clear timeframe for opening the border around the clock. But as Dr Cheung of Polytechnic University points out, the Government has huge reserves. It has apparently decided not to draw from these abundant reserves for the purpose of job creation measures, and simply calls upon people to go to the mainland to find jobs, seemingly without careful consideration of the employment situation and supporting services there. 'The Government is not playing Survivor [the television series]' Ng Kang-chung ( kcpost@scmp.com ) is a staff writer for the Post
