Geoffrey Yau, founder of the job-matching platform Moovup, recently accepted an interview with HK01 to discuss how Hong Kong’s overall economy is affected by the slowdown in the global economy. Amid weak local consumption and persistently high operating costs, employers are still grappling with falling unemployment rates, a shrinking frontline labor force, and an aging population, which together exacerbate labor shortages. This makes business operations even more challenging and has even caused many frontline industries to “watch business opportunities slip by without being able to capture the profits.”
Relying on Financial Incentives and “Emotional Appeals” Insufficient to Solve the Dilemma
However, he noted that most employers still adopt a “silver bullet strategy” (financial incentives) to attract and retain talent, though salary increase rates remain relatively conservative and cautious. Data from the platform reveals that comparing the starting salaries of December 2022 with December 2023, full-time retail, logistics, and transportation sectors saw the largest increases, with average starting salaries rising by $1,000, representing a 6.7% growth (see table). For part-time work, security and property management saw the largest increase of 8.3%, rising from $60 to $65 per hour.
He urged employers, amidst the extreme difficulty in hiring, not to rely solely on traditional methods such as simple pay raises, increased benefits, or “playing the emotional card” to ask employees to stay and weather the storm together—”these are only the basics.” Instead, they should approach the issue from multiple angles and enact changes. These include accommodating the needs of women to help them re-enter the workforce, as well as providing middle-aged job seekers with more skills training so they can acquire new knowledge while integrating their rich past experience, creating a win-win situation.
At the same time, employers should also consider utilizing part-time workers more. Geoffrey revealed that current platform data shows a 2:1 recruitment ratio between full-time and part-time jobs, but the job-seeking demand is the exact opposite. “If employers can manage effectively, part-timers can certainly substitute for full-time staff, so these measures should be given greater consideration during this urgent situation.”
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