The latest unemployment rate in Hong Kong rose to 5% from January to March, with more than 180,000 unemployed.
Law Chi-kwong, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, pointed out today (30th) that since February's figures "worsened so badly" and improved in March, the unemployment rate for February-April will be announced next month, "compared to January-March. The month must be different."
However, he believes that the peak of the unemployment rate has passed, and the government's "employment protection plan" has produced economic effects.
Applications for the Employment Guarantee Program began yesterday (29th), and Luo Zhiguang pointed out that 49,000 customers had applied on the first day, and he believed that the response was very enthusiastic.
He also pointed out that since most employers have also applied in 2020, it is believed that the subsidy can be approved without too many checks, and it is hoped that the subsidy will be approved in more than a week.
▼On April 25, the government announced the details of the "2022 Employment Support" plan▼
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Luo Zhiguang pointed out in the commercial program "Politics and Economics Saturday" today that the unemployment rate announced in April was the average of January to March, and the number in March was better than that in February, so next month "look at February to April again." , it will definitely be worse than January-March," but he believes that by March-May, the unemployment rate will almost certainly improve.
He believes that the peak of the unemployment rate has passed, and it is estimated that due to the government's announcement in March of the employment insurance plan, "there has been a change in behavior, and (employers) are beginning to be buried", which will have an economic effect.
He said that nearly 50,000 employers applied for the Employment Insurance Scheme on the first day, and the response was overwhelming.
Most of them have applied for the 2020 plan, and 2020 is used as the reference month. It is believed that the employers who apply for the subsidy will be able to obtain the subsidy soon. .
When asked about the fact that the business of supermarkets has not been affected much during the epidemic, why can they still apply for the Employment Insurance Scheme?
Luo Zhiguang responded that the plan hopes to focus on assisting small, medium and micro enterprises, admitting that the epidemic will have little impact on some industries, but employee infection or quarantine will also affect the operation of enterprises, "Supermarkets have been on the shelves for a while, and business points are all over the place. It has an impact”, and there are also small supermarkets to take care of.
As for some elderly employees who may not have MPF accounts, Law Chi-kwong emphasized that the concept of the plan is to help employers hire people and pay wages, so as to reduce financial pressure; in addition, it needs to be fast, so personal information of employees will not be collected, so only "a few people" will be collected. head".
He said that it would take "many, many times longer" for employers to hand in information such as food bills.
In terms of elderly part-time employees, he emphasized that after receiving the subsidy, the employer must use the full subsidy of 4,000 yuan on the wages of the employees, otherwise the subsidy and fine will be repaid.
In terms of temporary unemployment assistance, Law emphasized that it is a one-off and temporary plan. He believes that the most important thing about unemployment assistance at present is to cancel the hedging of MPF funds.
He said that despite the current economic downturn, there is still a lot of work to be done after the legislation, so it is expected to be implemented in 2025.
▼The flow of people in Mong Kok rebounded significantly on April 21▼
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Employment Guarantee 2022｜42,000 employers and 27,000 self-employed persons apply for the Innovation Office on the first day. The response to the Employment Guarantee Scheme 2022 is overwhelming. , Self-employed Q&A [with application form] Employment Guarantee Plan 2022｜Huang Jielong: It will help the economy recover July, enterprises may want to grab the PICC Employment Plan 2022｜Monitoring of employee turnover prevents "fat and thin", but it is difficult to strictly implement Employment Guarantee 2022｜ Employers owe 77 million fines and fail to submit to the labor sector to set up a watch list for the Employment Guarantee Program 2022 | Such self-employed persons have no copies!
List of application qualifications and methods｜Attached URL
