The labour force has dropped about 6 per cent to 3.75 million people, near a decade-low. Read more at straitstimes.com.
HONG KONG - Finance executive Tam Sze and her family of four will soon leave Hong Kong, where she has spent her entire life, bound for Melbourne.
Ms Tam and her family are part of a growing exodus of residents that's shrinking Hong Kong's workforce and undermining the economic outlook for the once-freewheeling city. The former British colony is struggling to revive its role as a global finance and commerce hub in the wake of the pandemic. Travel restrictions have prompted firms to shift staff from Hong Kong to rival hubs such as Singapore.
Only 5,701 visas were approved for international workers under the General Employment Policy in the first half of this year, compared to 20,314 in the first half of 2018. Visas for professionals from mainland China fell 10 per cent in the same period.A smaller labour force typically leads to lower gross domestic product and income levels of residents, said Aries Wong Kin-Ming, an expert on Hong Kong's economy at Hong Kong Baptist University.
"If these risks crystallise, it would leave the economy less dynamic, accelerate fiscal policy challenges associated with ageing and potentially contribute to downward pressure on the territory's credit rating," Fitch said in the report.
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