Due to the swept of the economic downturn worldwide, Hong Kong has been experiencing economic depression during the previous years, roughly starting from the year 1997.

Though the depression has been severe and thus a lot of people, including people being employed in the financial sector, are being layed off, the total number of employment in the financial sector has been rising from 409,248 in 1999 to 414,779 in 2000, and finally to 434,105 in 2001.

The government has been carrying out the Long-term Strategic Framework, seeks to reduce poverty through three core areas of sustainable economic growth recently. It does not focus solely on physical infrastructure, i.e. the building of roads, bridges and other "hardware", but also on the "software" of policy and institutional reform in the public and the private sectors. The Strategic Framework also attaches importance to private sector development, particularly in the fields of finance, banking and corporate governance.

Hong Kong has always been strong in its financial and business sector, and probably when it combines with the government's policies, it contributes to the employment rate of the sector is increasing steadily though slowly, rather than a rapid drop in the employment rate.