HONG KONG \u2013 Fresh graduate Mark Wong was on the hunt for a job in Hong Kong even before his official graduation in May. <\/p>\n
After failing to land a graduate-level job in the past four months, the 23-year-old local physics graduate is now applying for roles that do not require a degree. <\/p>\n
Yet, even those jobs are proving hard to come by, and he is getting more frustrated by the day. <\/p>\n
Mr Wong attributes the difficult job market to an influx of mainland Chinese workers into Hong Kong, which he feels is worsening the situation for local job seekers like him. <\/p>\n
\u201cHong Kong\u2019s job market is already highly competitive,\u201d he told The Straits Times. <\/p>\n
\u201cMainland applicants, attracted by Hong Kong\u2019s salaries and benefits, make it hard for me to compete for the professional, graduate jobs out there. Even in blue-collar roles like the one I\u2019m now applying for, mainland workers are also directly competing for the limited positions.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mr Wong, who has applied to no avail for roles such as data analyst and software engineer, is now seeking employment as an aviation security officer. <\/p>\n
But he already feels disadvantaged. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy friends have observed that most of the aviation security officers at the airport now are putonghua-speaking mainlanders,\u201d he said, referring to Mandarin. <\/p>\n
\u201cI also learnt from my relative working in that role that almost no locals were recruited into his team this year. The company may see it as more beneficial to hire mainlanders than locals. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis makes me feel very stressed and concerned about the future of the job market and the economy in Hong Kong,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The rising numbers of imported workers, particularly from the mainland, in recent years appear to be generating growing public discontent among locals. <\/p>\n
Even former chief executive Leung Chun Ying has given voice to the sentiment. <\/p>\n
Mr Leung, in multiple Facebook posts in 2025, has raised questions about Hong Kong\u2019s policies to import more labour to supplement its workforce. <\/p>\n
In his latest post in mid-August, he urged greater transparency from the government in addressing whether these workers were potentially taking up more resources \u2013 such as in education, housing and medical care \u2013 than they were contributing to the city. <\/p>\n
Hong Kong has implemented policies to plug gaps in its labour force after losing more than 5 per cent of its roughly 3.8 million workers in a mass exodus resulting from social unrest in 2019 and tight Covid-19 restrictions during the pandemic. <\/p>\n
Two main policies introduced around 2023 \u2013 the top talent pass scheme (TTPS) for graduates and high earners, and the enhanced supplementary labour scheme (ESLS) for semi-skilled workers \u2013 are aimed at bringing in non-local workers. <\/p>\n
Almost all the visas approved under these policies have gone to mainland Chinese. They accounted for 95 per cent of the more than 111,000 visas issued under the TTPS, and 97 per cent of the over 46,000 permits issued under the ESLS since 2023, according to the latest government data. <\/p>\n
One in every two visa-holders under TTPS applied to have his stay in Hong Kong extended, Labour Secretary Chris Sun said on Aug 15. <\/p>\n
In August, the authorities started penalising firms for the first time for favouring cheaper foreign workers over local ones, after labour unions complained that the practice was becoming prevalent and putting Hong Kongers at a disadvantage. <\/p>\n
On Aug 4, a cleaning firm was banned from hiring imported workers for a year after it was found to have refused to hire a suitable local candidate first. On Aug 29, a restaurant was slapped with a two-year ban for firing local employees to hire imported ones. <\/p>\n
In a statement to ST, the government affirmed its \u201cprinciple of according employment priority for local workers, and allows employers to import labour only after confirming that they are unable to fill the vacancies locally\u201d. <\/p>\n
The ESLS requires employers not to displace local workers with imported ones, and mandates that in the event of redundancy, imported workers should be retrenched first.<\/p>\n
The government said the Labour Department conducts regular inspections to ensure compliance, and has launched an online complaint form for job seekers to report violations, among other measures. <\/p>\n
It has been an \u201cemployer\u2019s market\u201d in Hong Kong over the past year, Mr James Tan, partner and managing director at global talent recruitment firm NexusSearch International, told ST. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely more challenging for people to get a job… given the soft market and labour import measures,\u201d he noted. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome employers have higher expectations of their new hires now that they think it\u2019s easier to get candidates who are able to meet all their requirements.\u201d <\/p>\n
Many non-local arrivals do tend to have an edge over the locals, according to Mr Tan. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the case for highly educated Chinese nationals, especially those who graduated from well-known universities overseas, as they tend to be fluent in both English and Mandarin, and also understand the Chinese culture,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The greater competition in Hong Kong\u2019s job market is affecting mid-to-senior-level professionals more than those in more junior positions, he added. <\/p>\n
May, a former bank officer in her 40s who asked to use only her first name for privacy reasons, started applying to other banks nearly a year ago. <\/p>\n
She has about two decades of experience in the finance sector, most recently in a mid-level compliance-related role at a Chinese bank in Hong Kong, which she left in April before securing a new job.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the companies I applied to hire many mainlanders; they also have Caucasian expatriates,\u201d she told ST. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t say it\u2019s discrimination that the firms didn\u2019t pick me, but it does feel like I\u2019ve lost out (to my non-local competitors). It makes me feel like I\u2019m not valued in my own city.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mr Benjamin Elms, managing director at the Hong Kong branch of human resources consulting multinational corporation Randstad, said that while non-local workers are helping to alleviate the city\u2019s talent scarcity pressures, hiring them \u201cis not a broad-based preference over local talent\u201d. <\/p>\n
Within the banking industry, for example, \u201cthe advantage lies with professionals who have a deeper understanding of overseas markets to build client relationships or navigate complex cross-border transitions\u201d, Mr Elms told ST. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe advantage (that non-local talents have over local job seekers) is a direct result of Hong Kong\u2019s economic pivot towards cross-border and global business objectives,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Employers are now also conducting \u201cmore rigorous, in-depth interview processes\u201d in the face of \u201ca more pronounced challenge of skills mismatch\u201d in Hong Kong, according to Mr Elms. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ongoing digital and AI (artificial intelligence) transformation has fundamentally changed what skills companies need,\u201d he said. \u201cCompanies are prioritising talent that is not just experienced, but also adaptable and ready to make a real impact with new technologies from day one.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mr Wong, the fresh graduate, has been battling a growing sense of despondency as he awaits the results of his latest job application. <\/p>\n
For now, he is banking on securing the aviation security officer role to gain some work experience, with his sights set on joining the government\u2019s disciplined services for greater job stability. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just frustrated,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like the policy of importing workers into Hong Kong is horribly affecting us locals.\u201d <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG \u2013 Fresh graduate Mark Wong was on the hunt for a job in Hong Kong even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[64,63,99,180],"class_list":["post-108320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-jobs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}