Comparison between Manufacturing sector & Financing, insurance, real estate and business sector in March 2000 in Hong Kong

Nature of the 2 sectors

The "Manufacturing" sector is in the secondary sector, the people engage in industrial activities. They are the skilled labour and work for the industrial firms, usually they work in the factories and the industrial buildings/estates. Examples in Hong Kong including the textile industries (light industries) and ship-building (heavy industries).

The "Financing, insurance, real estate and business" sector belongs to the tertiary sector, the people engage in financial, commercial, social and recreational services. They are the professionals and work for the private companies, governments and organizations. In general, their work places are offices, stores and institutes. Examples in Hong Kong are retailing, finance, and leisure and tourism.

Total number of people employed in the 2 sectors

In March 2000, there are 233679 people engage in the "Manufacturing" sector; while the total number of people employed in the "Financing, insurance, real estate and business" sector is 414779 in the same period.

Table 1 - Number of people employed in the 2 sectors and their percentages in the 3 regions in Hong Kong (March 2000)

Source: Quarterly Survey of Employment and Vacancies, Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR, PRC.

Hong Kong is an international city, its economic development is in fast pace. The structure of Hong Kong's economy has shifted from manufacturing to services since late 1980s, free-market capitalism is the form of economic organization.

As a result, more people engage in tertiary sector than in secondary sector.

Distributions

Some districts have more people engage in the particular sector, and some districts get relatively lower figures of people employment of that sector. For the people engage in the both sectors, they concentrate in few districts in Hong Kong.

Both sectors have unevenly distributions of employment figures in Hong Kong.

In Kowloon, most people (35533) engage in Kwun Tong for the "M" sector, but there are only 17856 people employed in another sector.

On the other hand, there are 49715 people engage in "F" sector in Yau Tsim Mong, which is the largest proportion of employment of this sector in Kowloon region. However, least people (9737) employed in "M" sector. The former is about 5.1 times more than the latter.

In the New Territories, Kwai Tsing has the highest figure of 34851 people employed in "M" sector, and it also has the most people (11127) engage in "F" sector.

Great difference between the figures of the 2 sectors (in %) occurs in Tai Po, 14651 over 3572, about 4.1 times more of people engage in "M" sector than that in "F" sector.

On Hong Kong Island, Eastern (17979 people engaged) has the largest proportion in "M" sector, the other sector in the same district records a figure of 44084.

The district Central and Western has the greatest difference in both number and percentage between the figures of the 2 sectors. For the "M" sector, only 6381 people employed; the other sector has 145904 people engage, and it is the most concentrated district in employment of "F" sector in Hong Kong.

Table 2 is the summary of the districts mentioned above:

Source: Quarterly Survey of Employment and Vacancies, Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR, PRC.

Background

The main reason of the distribution in "Manufacturing" sector is closely related to the locations of industrial estates/factories in Hong Kong. In fact, the 5 districts listed above all have an industrial zone within the areas. In 1970-80s, the Hong Kong government introduced the industrial estates in some particular to concentrate the manufacturing production, the settlements in Kwun Tong and Tai Po are popular in Hong Kong. The people who live there act as the labour pool for the estates, so the higher figures in manufacturing employment would be shown.

Also, Kwai Tsing, Eastern, Yau Tsim Mong and even Sham Shui Po and Wong Tai Sin are the old zones in Hong Kong. Many factories have been setup in these districts for many years or few decades, especially during the industrial era of Hong Kong in 1960-70s, the linkages have been built. Naturally the people in there would engage in manufacturing industry.

For the distribution in the "Financing, insurance, real estate and business" sector, CBD naturally gets the highest figure in this tertiary sector. Hong Kong is special that to have 2 CBDs (Central and Tsim Sha Tsui), and they are in the districts of Central and Western and Yau Tsim Mong. According to table 2, these 2 districts record 47.2% employment in the sector, nearly 200000 people engage.

The night-view of Victoria Habour, the busy retailing activities with low prices and the colourful city life attract thousands of tourists to Hong Kong. They boost the economic development and bring the need in tertiary placements. As the offices, hotels and stores are mainly setup in and surround the CBDs, the distribution in employment of "F" sector therefore concentrates in there.

Moreover, Hong Kong is a hilly city, flatlands are limited, however, there are 7 millions people in here. To do the business in real estate has become very profitable for the last 20 years, the jobs in these sector then remain in a large proportion. The placements are mainly in the urban areas, that is Kowloon and Hong Kong Island; as the New Territories have more flatlands (such as the flatlands in Yuen Long and Tuen Mun), the land rents in there are lower and fewer people engage in real estate.

To conclude, the "M" sector requires lands, facilites, linkages and regional labour pool therefore the districts in the New Territories and the old zones in urban areas are suitable. More residents would work in this particular sector. For the "F" sector, professional employees, accessibility, markets and information are the most important elements. The urban areas in the both sides of the Victoria Habour match the requirements, as a result, most of the people in these districts engage in this sector.