Govt Faces Fresh Calls For Unemployment Subsidies

The DAB and the Federation of Trade Unions have repeated their calls for subsidies for Hong Kong people out of work, after the government announced its bleak jobless figures this week.

Officials said on Tuesday that the unemployment rate in Hong Kong for the February to April period had spiked to a 10-year high of 5.2 percent – more than 200,000 people – as the Covid-19 outbreak continues to hit the economy hard.

At a press briefing on Wednesday, the DAB said it had surveyed just under 1,000 people by phone and in person between May 11 and 19 and found that 35 percent of them had recently lost their jobs.

Meanwhile, 75 percent said their income had decreased since the Covid-19 outbreak, and 60 percent were concerned that their employer would make staff cuts, the DAB said.

More than half of those surveyed said they wanted the government to create jobs and distribute its HK$10,000 one-off payment to all permanent residents as soon as possible, the party added.

DAB lawmaker Wilson Or urged the government to provide immediate cash support to the unemployed, without any means-testing.

His Legco colleague Vincent Cheng said the party had met Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung to push for the move, but the authorities are still rejecting the proposal because it would involve a lot of money.

Another pro-Beijing group, the FTU, said it also carried out a survey between April 23 and May 13 involving more than 2,200 people. Around half had lost their jobs in the past year, the party said.

About 70 percent had their income reduced either through redundancy, or a pay cut, the FTU told reporters.

The party also reiterated its call for the government to help with job creation, and to launch a third round of anti-epidemic relief funding as soon as possible.