Teeming Hong Kong Seeks More People

The teeming streets and apartment blocks jammed one against the other suggest that the last thing Hong Kong needs is more people.

But employers insist that they have tens of thousands of jobs available with no one to fill them. They want the government to relax strict immigration laws so that foreign laborers can help fuel the robust economy.

“There just aren’t enough people to go around,” said Ian Wade, chairman of the 78-member Retail Management Assn., of the British colony’s 5.7-million population.

Hong Kong’s economy expanded 13.5% in 1987 and an estimated 8% last year, sending the unemployment rate tumbling to a negligible 1.3% for the three months ending in November. Jimmy McGregor, who represents business interests in the local legislature, estimates that at least 100,000 more workers are needed.

Business leaders say the shortage endangers future growth and forces up wages, fueling inflation, which neared 8% last year. The government, however, says bringing in foreigners who do not have special skills would deprive local workers of their fair share of Hong Kong’s economic success and could create numerous social problems.

The shortage is felt in virtually every industry, from gritty construction sites to the posh corridors of the five-star tourist hotels.

Employers are taking a wide variety of measures to cope.

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, short nearly 300 tellers as the hectic Lunar New Year holiday approached in early February, attempted to relieve the strain on its employees by giving away two Porsche cars in a contest open only to customers who used automatic banking machines, spokeswoman Fiona-Jane Kennedy said.

The new Marriott Hotel angered competitors by instituting a 48-hour, five-day work week, instead of the industry standard of six days.

Kent Maury, the Marriott marketing director, said the five-day week was designed to give his hotel a “competitive edge” in attracting staff. “It’s done exactly what we wanted,” he said, adding that 3,800 people applied for 1,100 openings.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Hong Kong manufacturers have established plants across the border in China’s Guangdong province, where wages are relatively cheap, land is available and labor is abundant.

The critical construction industry has been particularly hard hit by the scarcity of labor, with the vast majority of projects failing to meet completion deadlines, according to Gerrit J. de Nys, chief executive of Shui On (Contractors) Ltd.

The situation is exacerbated by laborers who are not working as hard, aware of how valuable a commodity they have become, de Nys said.

“If you yell and shout at them . . . they won’t even say goodby. They’ll just walk off the job,” he said.

Shui On now tends to focus more on public sector projects because the government seems less likely to demand penalty payments for the inevitable delays, De Nys said.

Compounding the personnel headache faced by De Nys and others is the loss of thousands of key professionals who are emigrating before China takes over the colony in 1997.

While there appears to be no quick fix to stem the emigration flow, businessmen believe that the labor shortage could be relieved if the government relaxed immigration restrictions that generally allow the entry of only specially skilled workers and maids.

Nine major business associations have joined forces and are preparing a report on their labor needs in the hope of persuading the government to ease immigration.

McGregor, who is involved in the project, said the government could tap China for labor to do short-term contractual work. English-speaking workers needed in service industries could be brought in from the Philippines, Malaysia and possibly Thailand, he said.

So far, the government has refused to budge.