Government-aided jobs scheme to end

Applications for a government-subsidised internship programme for university graduates will close on March 31 as the job market gradually revives, the Labour Department says.

It is unlikely that the programme - launched in August last year - will be extended as the department describes it as special treatment under special circumstances.

'If it wasn't for the financial crisis, there wouldn't be such a plan,' senior labour officer Raymond Ho Kam-biu said.

The programme is intended for 2008 and 2009 graduates from 12 tertiary institutions. So far, 1,422 graduates have been employed through the scheme, which has yielded more than 7,000 job offers.

Under the scheme, the government offers employers a monthly subsidy of HK$2,000 for each graduate they hire for six months to a year. The average salary is HK$8,800.

Unemployment has dropped for four consecutive quarters to 4.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year. For those aged between 20 and 29, the rate was 6.9 per cent.

The Joint Institution Job Information System, an online job-seeking platform for graduates, reports a 10 per cent year-on-year rise in vacancies from September to November.

Ho said he was confident termination of the programme would not lift the unemployment rate. He said the Labour Department had consulted the universities before making the decision, and it was good timing to end the programme after graduates had found a job.

While less than 20 per cent of the jobs offered in the programme were taken up, Ho did not see it as a failure. 'We aim to offer an alternative choice for students to develop their careers ... the quota is not used up, and it may indicate an improvement in the labour market,' he said.

City University career and internship office director Cecilia Kwok said 25 per cent of graduates employed in the programme dropped out in the middle of it. Most of them found another job while others did not find the jobs suitable for them.