Labour chief sees unemployment peaking soon

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong said on Friday that he expected joblessness in the SAR to peak in the three months ending in April as government support schemes begin to take effect.

Speaking on RTHK’s Money Talk programme, Law said the introduction of consumption vouchers in April and the rollout of a new round of employment support subsidies in May would help bring down unemployment, which reached 4.5 percent in the three months to the end of February amid the fifth wave of Covid cases.

“We hope that the economy will be able to pick up next month,” he told RTHK’s Peter Lewis. “So if you look at those figures, we would expect that the highest unemployment rate would be reflected in the three months between February, March and April. So by then it will start coming down.”

Law was also asked about the government’s progress to easing cross-border travel. The administration announced on Monday that flight bans from nine territories would be lifted from April 1 while hotel quarantine on arrival would be reduced from 14 days to a week.

However, travel industry leaders have said a lack of availability of flights and hotels will limit travel, with some business groups calling for quarantine to be dropped.

Law said there was a need to balance hopes for international travel with the reality that it would put elderly Hongkongers at risk and put pressure on the SAR’s hospitals.

He said a much higher vaccination rate among elderly people would be needed.

“This is the point at which we will see, even if there is virus spreading around, then our hospital system will still be able to survive. If we have that over 90, preferably 95 percent vaccination rate among our seniors.”

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Sunday that about 70 percent of people aged 70 or above have been vaccinated, leaving about 280,000 elderly people who are still to receive their first jab.