Hong Kong's desperation grows with joblessness
By Helen Luk
Associated Press
HONG KONG — Standing amid dilapidated buildings, Wong Chi-moon takes a deep drag on a cigarette, then exhales as if to blow away his melancholy.
Associated Press
Wong, 55, used to earn the equivalent of $2,581 a month as a salesman. But since losing his job three years ago, he has scraped by on government subsidies equal to less than a fifth of that. For a few months this year he was homeless; now he rents a bed in a charity home. Dozens of attempts to find work have failed.
Wong Chi-moon, 55, an unemployed salesman, took to sleeping on the street after he lost his job three years ago. Unemployment hit 5.3 percent last quarter.
"Life is difficult these days," Wong laments. "Even to be a shop assistant you'll have to be young and know English and a computer."
Hong Kong was struggling with unemployment before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks dealt a further blow to the former British colony still trying to recover from the Asian financial crisis of 1998. The loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs to mainland China and the bursting of the dot-com bubble have worsened matters.
The sharp rise in unemployment was particularly noticeable in September, as the attacks bit into foreign trade and travel, the government said. The jobless rate soared to 5.3 percent in the three months ending Sept. 30 — its highest level in 17 months — and officials expect that figure to rise as the full impact of the terrorist strikes is felt.
Hong Kong has long been a magnet for Chinese believing they could work hard and get rich, but there is a growing sense of desperation among many who feel left behind.
Latest government statistics show economic growth vanishing, and private economists believe Hong Kong may be headed for another recession. Dragged down by falling exports, the economy shrank 1.7 percent during the second quarter.
Financial Secretary Antony Leung said the growth forecast in Hong Kong's gross domestic product will fall from an already lowered 1 percent.
Thousands of workers have been laid off by private companies, and Hong Kong's No. 2 official, Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang, has warned "fat-trimming" might hit the public sector too. That's a bitter prospect for government employees who have traditionally viewed their work as an "iron rice bowl," or jobs for life.
People are growing increasingly discontented with the government's failure to ease their pain. But the administration has refused to "hand out rice" to the disgruntled public.
Top officials have acknowledged residents' skills don't always meet expectations in the globalizing economy. After losing many manufacturing businesses to China, Hong Kong clearly needs to re-invent itself, but specific solutions have proven elusive.
Professor Ho Lok-sang, head of the economics department at Lingnan University, said the slump is far from over. Hong Kong is feeling worse shocks now than during the 1998 financial crisis, he said, with the government clearly lacking solutions and the global economy in tatters. It's hard to say when the economy will pick up again, he said.
"Practically, Hong Kong is in recession already," he said. "During the last crisis Hong Kong's internal economy was in trouble but the external factors were not bad. Now both are really bad."
Professor Nelson Chow, who teaches social work at the University of Hong Kong, forecasts more people will turn to welfare.
Government statistics indicate the number of unemployed on welfare has climbed from 23,364 in January to 25,748 in September — a rise of 10 percent. Low-income earners on welfare rose from 8,345 in January to 8,678 last month.
"The fundamental problem is that it is hard for the poor to be self-reliant when they earn so little," Chow said.
Leung Bun, his wife and their three teenagers are struggling on about $1,290 a month, from his unemployment benefits and his wife's job cleaning schools. Most of it goes to the children's education.
Leung, 63, worked in printing before his factory moved to mainland China three years ago.
"I want to improve my family's living too," he said. "But the chance is slim. People won't hire me because I'm too old."
