Hong Kong’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in more than two years, helping bolster spending and economic growth in the territory. The jobless rate for the three months through last month was 3.8 percent, the lowest since November 2008, the government said on its Web site yesterday. That was lower than the 4 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of eight economists.
Hong Kong’s rebound has encouraged companies such as HSBC Holdings PLC to add workers to expand their operations.
Still, a “concern” for the economy includes possible decreased demand for goods shipped through the territory because of the European debt crisis, Hong Kong Secretary for Labor Matthew Cheung (張建宗) said yesterday.
“The near-term outlook of the job market still remains buoyant,” said Joanne Yim (嚴愛群), chief economist at Hang Seng Bank Ltd in Hong Kong.
She expects the jobless rate to stay at an average of 3.8 percent next year.
HSBC Holdings PLC plans to hire 1,000 employees for its personal financial services in Hong Kong, the Standard newspaper reported yesterday, citing an unidentified spokesman.
“Employers generally are still adopting a positive attitude towards hiring,” Cheung said. “More new jobs are therefore expected.”
The introduction of an HK$28 (US$3.60) per hour minimum wage could increase business costs and restrain hiring. The measure takes effect on May 1 and may boost the pay of 314,600 workers, Cheung said. Hong Kong’s GDP expanded at an annual pace of 6.8 percent pace in the third quarter and officials say full-year growth for last year may be 6.5 percent.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
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Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San