A total of 114,400 people joined the labour force last year, with 63.9% of them women, the Census & Statistics Department says. The intake saw the labour force grow 3.2%.

The department's Special Topics Report No.47 released today said the sex ratio of labour force entrants stands at 566 men to 1,000 women.

It conducted a special enquiry on labour mobility via the General Household Survey from July to September last year. The median age of entrants was 23, with about 66.6% under 30. They also had higher educational attainment with 49.7% having tertiary education.

Of the entrants below 30 years old, 82.7% were school leavers, had just completed short-term courses or public examinations.

Of the 85,700 entrants employed at the time of enumeration, 36.1% were engaged in the wholesale, retail and import-export trades, restaurants and hotels sector; 27% in the community, social and personal services sector; and, 20.9% in the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector.

The median monthly earnings for employed entrants was $6,000, much lower than the median of $10,000 for the total employed population. This was probably due to the shorter period of service and lesser working experience.

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