Their number has tripled in the past decade and many say the main problem is being separated from their families
Separation from family members is the main problem faced by Hong Kong residents who work across the border, followed by difficulties with the mainland's legal, trade and commerce systems, a government survey found.
The Census and Statistics Department found that the number of Hong Kong people working on the mainland had tripled during the past decade, from 64,200 people in 1992 to 198,100 last year. The figure represents 6.1 per cent of Hong Kong's workforce.
But nearly 90 per cent said they worked on the mainland only because their employers required them to do so. Only 8.9 per cent said there were better career prospects across the border, while just 2.7 per cent said jobs were easier to find there.
The survey, in which 11,000 households were interviewed from April to June last year, also found that women lagged far behind their male counterparts when it came to working on the mainland - with men accounting for 78.8 per cent of the total number.
However, the number of Hong Kong women working on the mainland has been rising steadily during the past few years. Women accounted for 10 to 14 per cent of Hong Kongers working across the border between 1988 and 1998, rising to 18.4 per cent in 2001 and then to 21.2 per cent last year.
The study also found that middle-aged people were more likely to have worked on the mainland: 70 per cent of the workers were aged 30 to 49, higher than the corresponding proportion of 59.1 per cent for the total employed population. It attributed the phenomenon to their 'accumulated working experiences'.