Private sector vacancies fall 12% as employment slips

Food and beverage services led the drop with 25% fewer openings.

Hong Kong private sector vacancies fell 12% to 48,610 in March as employment slipped, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department.

Food and beverage services posted the largest drop, with vacancies falling by 1,230, or 25%. Education vacancies declined by 980, or 17%, whilst human health services vacancies fell by 790, or 22%.

Arts, entertainment, recreation and other services recorded 750 fewer vacancies, a 21% decline, the department said.

Vacancies rose mainly in financing and insurance, up 240, or 5%, and manufacturing, up 130 or 7%.

By occupation, vacancies were concentrated amongst services and sales workers, with 16,550 openings. Associate professionals had 9,440 vacancies, whilst professionals had 8,480.

Meanwhile, the total number of persons engaged in the surveyed private sector fell 0.4%, or 10,100 workers, to 2.704 million during the period.

Employment declines were led by construction sites, where manual workers fell 9%, or 11,200 people. Import and export trade recorded a 3.9% decline, equivalent to 13,600 fewer workers.

Transportation, storage, postal and courier services fell 1%, or 1,700 workers, whilst retail trade declined 0.9%, or 2,000 workers. Wholesale also dropped 0.9%, or 400 workers.

Some industries continued to add workers. Real estate employment rose 3.4%, whilst arts, entertainment, recreation and other services increased 2.5%. Residential care and social work services rose 2.3%.

Import and export trade remained the largest surveyed employer with 336,200 persons engaged, followed by professional and business services, excluding cleaning and similar services, with 319,800.

Financing and insurance employed 231,600 people, whilst retail trade had 228,800. Education had 220,600 persons engaged, and food and beverage services employed 217,600.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, total persons engaged fell 0.3% in March from December 2025, whilst vacancies rose 1.6% over the same period.