The population of Hong Kong

English Name: Population and Employment Structure in Hong Kong

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Region: Hong Kong

introduce

Introduction document

Introduction document

Population and Employment Structure in Hong Kong

Employed population, also known as working population or working population. The part of the working population in Hong Kong that engages in social labor or business activities and obtains labor remuneration or business income. According to 199 1 Hong Kong census report, the employed population was 27 15 103, and the labor force participation rate was 64%. In various industries, the number of employed people in manufacturing industry has been declining, mainly due to the improvement of mechanization and the transfer of labor to service industry and labor-intensive industries to the mainland of China. The number of employees in the service industry has further increased, which is consistent with the situation that the economic structure has turned to the service economy system.

The population structure of Hong Kong has several characteristics: First, the working-age population (15-64 years old) accounts for a large proportion of the total social population, reaching 50%-70%; Second, the proportion of people under the age of 15 has been declining, from 23.8% in 1984 to 9.4% in 1994; Third, the proportion of people over 65 years old is rising, from 2.8% in 196 1 to 7.2% in 1984, and then to 9.3% in 1994; Fourth, the proportion of dependent population (that is,1under 4 years old and over 65 years old) has been declining, from 733 per thousand working-age population in 196 1 year to 449 in 1984, and then to 404 in 1994.

These characteristics of Hong Kong's population structure are the result of the declining birth rate and low death rate. Hong Kong has a large working-age population, which is related to the large number of young people in the Mainland in the late 1950s and early 1960s and the high birth rate. These characteristics enable Hong Kong society to maintain a low support rate while having a rich young and middle-aged labor force, which naturally promotes its economic take-off. At the same time, we should also see that the trend of population aging brought about by the low natural growth rate of Hong Kong's social population will become more and more obvious. It is estimated that in the next 20 years, the elderly over 65 in Hong Kong will account for 12% of the total population. This phenomenon will bring a series of new problems to Hong Kong society.

Another feature of Hong Kong's population structure is that the sex ratio of the population is unbalanced, with more men than women, and the gap is obvious. According to statistics, the sex ratio between men and women in Hong Kong has remained high. 0 years 197 1.033, 0976 1.052, 198 1.089, 199 1 year. The imbalance between men and women is the most serious among young people aged 20 to 34, reaching the highest level of 1. 155. This means that more than 10% of men in this age group can't find a spouse of the same age.

The imbalance between Yin and Yang in Hong Kong is so serious, mainly because of China's traditional "son preference" thought, but because immigrants account for a high proportion of the total population, male young adults account for the vast majority of immigrants. No matter in the past or now, it is always not easy to abandon one's family and land and go to Hong Kong to break new ground. New immigrants are new here, strangers, completely blind. After today, they have no idea what will happen tomorrow. They must work hard if they want to gain a foothold. This is naturally more difficult for women to adapt to, while men are relatively better. It is for this reason that there are not many women among immigrants. This inadvertently caused the imbalance between Yin and Yang in Hong Kong.

Due to the uneven proportion of men and women, many young men can't find a partner in Hong Kong, so they have to marry mainland women and live a life of separation. When they meet the immigration requirements, they will immigrate their wives to Hong Kong. Some people don't want to live apart from each other, so they bring their wives to Hong Kong through illegal channels or settle down on ships along the coast of Hong Kong to make a living. Because the hostess of this family belongs to the illegal "black", she is on tenterhooks all day, and I don't know if there will be any trouble if she is found by the police. What's more, their children are not Hong Kong residents, and many problems such as schooling and medical insurance cannot be properly solved.

In recent years, the sex ratio in Hong Kong society has gradually become reasonable, from 1.994 to 1.032, which is basically balanced.

In Hong Kong, the working-age population (or employed population) accounts for more than half of the total population. Among the employed population in Hong Kong, the increase in female employment has been a feature of the past 20 years. At present, more than 80% of women aged 20-30 in Hong Kong are employed, and about 60% of women aged 30-50 are employed. This reflects the improvement of women's status in Hong Kong society, and also reflects the tendency of late marriage, infertility or fewer children in Hong Kong.

Judging from the employment distribution in Hong Kong, before the 1950s, employees in foreign trade or related industries accounted for the highest proportion of the working population. After the 1950s, the largest number of people engaged in processing and manufacturing. After 1970s, with the development of the tertiary industry, especially Hong Kong gradually became the trade, finance and tourism center of East Asia, the labor force engaged in the tertiary industry increased rapidly, and its proportion was 4 1% in 197 1 year, and rose to 62 in 199 1 year. During the same period, the number of people engaged in the secondary industry decreased from 47% to 27%. It can be seen that the tertiary industry has completely replaced the secondary industry and become the largest employment sector in Hong Kong. This change of employment structure in Hong Kong is consistent with the changing trend of international employment structure. This also illustrates the development direction of diversification and internationalization of Hong Kong's economy from one side.

Hong Kong has a small land and a large population, especially the influx of immigrants every year, which should cause great pressure on employment, but Hong Kong has maintained a high employment rate for decades. This is mainly due to the sustained and high-speed economic development, which can absorb a large number of labor, and also has a lot to do with Hong Kong's emphasis on re-employment training and making workers adapt to the changes in industrial structure.

Modern economic development requires higher and higher quality of labor force. In order to maintain economic growth, Hong Kong has made great efforts to improve the quality of its workforce in the past 20 years. 1973, the Hong Kong Government set up the Labor Training Council, with 10 Industrial Training Committee, which is responsible for the employment training of workers in automobile repair, construction and civil engineering, clothing, electrical machinery, electronics, machinery and metal products, ship construction and repair, plastics, textiles, printing and other industries. In addition, there are six business training committees, which are responsible for training professionals in accounting, finance, insurance, foreign trade, commerce, tourism, catering, news and other industries. In addition to government departments, education departments and other industries have also taken measures to carry out various vocational training and employment guidance, so as to continuously improve the quality of the workforce.

Hong Kong's employment structure adapts to the diversified and international economic structure, which has many characteristics different from those in the mainland or surrounding areas.

First of all, there are various employment systems.

As Hong Kong's economy is closely linked with the international economy, fluctuations in the international economic situation directly affect Hong Kong's economy and are reflected in employment. When the international economy is prosperous, the operation of industrial and commercial enterprises in Hong Kong will expand, and the demand for labor will inevitably increase. On the contrary, it will decrease. Companies and enterprises with relatively stable production and operation have relatively stable requirements for workers, so they hire more long-term permanent workers. If the production and operation are not very stable, the long-term casual work system or casual work system is generally adopted. Long-term temporary workers are actually long-term temporary workers. They have been employed by a boss for a period of time, but their status is still temporary, and the boss is not responsible for providing accommodation or other welfare benefits. Casual workers are short-term temporary workers, often used in industries with great changes in production and operation, such as construction, loading and unloading.

Second, the labor force is highly mobile.

On the issue of employment, both bosses and wage earners in Hong Kong have their own freedom. Bosses are free to choose employees, decide their own salary forms and fire employees themselves, that is, fire employees. Wage earners also have the freedom to choose their work units and jobs, and of course they also have the freedom to resign, that is, the freedom to dismiss their bosses. Employees dismiss their bosses mainly to change working conditions or get higher income, which is also a reasonable reaction of workers to the labor market.

The third feature of employment in Hong Kong is the coexistence of unemployment and job vacancies.

As an industrial and commercial city based on processing industry and dominated by foreign trade, Hong Kong often encounters labor shortage during the period of vigorous economic development, and is troubled by the increase of unemployment when it encounters economic recession. Although the unemployment rate in Hong Kong has always been lower than that in western countries and some developing countries, there are always unemployed people. At the same time, there are many job vacancies in Hong Kong. On the one hand, some people have no jobs, on the other hand, some jobs are not done. The reasons for this phenomenon are: first, great changes have taken place in the market economy, new industries are constantly emerging, while the old industries are declining, while some workers, although not well educated, are not competent for the new vacant positions, so they have to lose their jobs with the decline of the old industries; Second, because the labor force can flow freely, no one wants to do some jobs with poor working conditions and low wages.

Of Hong Kong's population of 665,438+500,000, 97% are Chinese. Most Chinese in Hong Kong come from Guangdong, with the Pearl River Delta as the largest area, followed by Siyi people (Taishan, Xinhui, Enping, Kaiping and other counties) and Chaoshan people. The rest are from Fujian, other cities and counties in Guangdong and other provinces. 3% of Hong Kong's population are foreigners. In Hong Kong, Cantonese accounts for 88%, Chaoshan dialect accounts for 1.4%, Hakka dialect accounts for 1.6%, Minnan dialect accounts for 1.9%, Mandarin accounts for 1.65%, 438+0%, and English accounts for 2.2%. Therefore, Cantonese is the main language in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The whole territory of Hong Kong is only 1084 square kilometers, and the population density of Hong Kong is 5790 people per square kilometer. As most of Hong Kong is mountainous and hilly, the population is concentrated in places with convenient transportation and relatively flat terrain. In this way, the population density of the old urban area consisting of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon reached 25,920 people per square kilometer (1994). Mong Kok District, Kowloon, 199 1 year, the population per square kilometer is as high as 1 16 53 1. In recent 10 years, in order to change the overpopulation in the old urban areas, Hong Kong has successively built eight new towns in the "New Territories", including Sha Tin, Tai Po, Fanling, Yuen Long, Tin Shui Wai, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan and Tseung Kwan O, and the population has gradually flowed into the "New Territories" from the densely populated Kowloon and New Kowloon. By 1994, the population of the "new frontier" has accounted for 45. 1% of Hong Kong's population, while the population of Hong Kong Island only accounts for 2 1.8%, while the population of Kowloon and New Kowloon has dropped from more than half to 32.8% now, and the population density has naturally declined.

Like other cities in developed countries, some middle-class and wealthy families in Hong Kong have gradually moved out of the city and into the suburbs. In this way, in the southern part of Hong Kong Island and some places in the "New Territories", a number of affluent residential groups have gradually formed, which has also eased the population pressure in the old city.