Bumper year for Hong Kong’s fresh graduates, with more jobs and better pay on offer as economy picks up

The job market picked up for Hong Kong’s fresh graduates from January to March, with many more vacancies than in recent years and higher average starting pay of HK$19,000 (US$2,420).

First quarter data from a jobs portal run by the city’s universities showed that positions in public relations and event management experienced the highest jump in salary, rising from HK$15,000 last year to HK$17,000.

The number of customer service openings in retail, hotels and tourism shot up from 900 last year to 7,700, in line with Hong Kong dropping all Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions and its border fully reopening with mainland China.

There were 34,125 full-time job vacancies for graduates in the first quarter of this year, according to data on the Joint Institution Job Information System portal.

That was the highest number in five years and sharply up from first quarter figures of 23,096 in 2022 and fewer than 18,000 in 2021.

There were twice as many surveying and administrative posts in the non-private sector, which refers to jobs in government and publicly subsidised organisations, compared with the same period last year.

The average starting pay for fresh graduates also improved with employers offering HK$19,000 for new hires, up from about HK$18,000 last year. The average 5.4 per cent increase was the highest increment in three years.

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Jobs in architecture and interior design and the healthcare industry, which includes doctors, therapists and pharmacists, paid fresh graduates an average of 12 per cent more this year.

The data reflected Hong Kong’s early recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and the city’s falling unemployment rate.

The jobless rate fell to 3.3 per cent for the December-to-February period, the 11th consecutive monthly decline.

Alexa Chow Yee-ping, managing director of recruitment agency ACTS Consulting, said the brighter job market for graduates accompanied the city’s return to normality and also the wave of emigration in recent years.

With the return of visitors and the revival of economic activities, the retail, hotel and tourism field was experiencing a rebound and needed more manpower, she said.

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Employers also had to fill the gap left by residents who emigrated to take advantage of bespoke citizenship pathways offered by Britain, Canada and Australia.

According to the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong last year suffered the biggest drop in its working population since records began in 1985, losing more than 94,000 employees.

The downward trend has continued since 2019, when the city was hit by social unrest, with 220,500 workers in total leaving the labour market over the past four years.

Chow said she believed the serious loss of talent had continued over the past 12 months.

She said employers had to use higher pay to lure talent and fill vacancies, particularly in the health sector, and officials had recently visited Britain to “trawl for professionals” and attract some to Hong Kong.