Job prospects for new Hong Kong graduates decline: high level jobs hard to find and earnings drop
Study by Legislative Council secretariat paints grim picture for new degree holders, with more ending up in lower-level jobs requiring less professional knowledge
The city has nurtured more workers with a university degree in the past two decades, but less than half of them could take up top managerial and professional jobs and they made less money than older graduates, research from the Legislative Council secretariat has found.
The research, Challenges of Manpower Adjustment in Hong Kong, was compiled by the secretariat’s research office based on data from the Census and Statistics Department and political group New Century Forum.
It showed that the proportion of the local workforce with degree-level education had risen from 9 per cent to 29 per cent from 1994 to last year, but less than half of them could take up top-level managerial and professional jobs.
It showed that from 2008 to 2015, managerial, administrative and professional occupations could absorb only 38 per cent of additional workers with degrees, down from 47 per cent from 1994 to 2001.
The research office said the job mismatch was because the creation of high-end jobs could not keep pace with manpower supply amid slow structural change towards knowledge-based activities.
It noted that more workers with degrees needed to take up less skilled occupations, resulting in a big wage discount.
The office said as a result of the gradual saturation of higher-end jobs, more degree holders ended up with lower-level jobs requiring less professional knowledge.
From 2008 to 2015, 26 per cent of the additional workforce with degree education worked as clerks, service workers or shop sales staff, more than twice the figure of 12 per cent from 1994 to 2001.
It also found that university graduates born in the mid-1960s could attain median monthly employment earnings of HK$33,500 at 2013 market prices at the age of 35 to 39, after 10 to 15 years of work.
But a university graduate born in the mid-1970s could make only HK$26,100 at the age of 35 to 39.
The researchers also found that the proportion of employers in the local workforce had almost halved over the past two decades to just 3 per cent last year.
In particular, the proportion of younger people aged 34 and below among local employers shrank from 25 per cent to 9 per cent from 1991 to last year.
The research also found the total number of casual employees, part-time employees and self-employed persons in the city rose by 40 per cent to about 524,000 from 1999 to last year, or from a proportion of 12 per cent to 14 per cent of the total workforce.
The office said this flexible workforce was subject to greater job insecurity, less statutory employment benefits and lower employment income than permanent employees.
