The Government today said the 2022 Employment Support Scheme received 176,000 applications from employers involving about 1.66 million employees at the close of its application period yesterday.

It added that both the number of applications and the number of employees exceeded their original estimates, whlie 119,000 self-employed people submitted applications as well.

Together with the Consumption Voucher Scheme, the Employment Support Scheme encourages employers to retain employees or even employ more staff members, thereby preventing the unemployment rate from rising further and accelerating the rebound of the local economy as the fifth wave of the epidemic subsides.

It is estimated the support scheme, together with the one-off subsidy for eligible self-employed people, will involve a subsidy of around $39 billion.

The first batch of around 45,000 applications from employers was approved on May 10 and these employers have committed to employ around 300,000 employees this month.

The Government said it is processing the remaining applications at full steam and strives to finish vetting the second batch of applications next week.