Frankly Speaking | Hong Kong needs more imported workers
By Lai Ngan. The government announced on 30 May optimisations to the General Employment Policy (GEP) and the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP), allowing the import of young, non-degree professionals with qualifications and experience in 8 designated technical trades, with a 3,000-per-industry cap over three years. The decision again drew labour-sector scepticism — the usual arguments being whether an economy still in recovery needs so many imported workers, and whether importing over 24,000 workers will depress local pay. Yet given the objective facts that Hong Kong's high labour costs drive high property prices, high prices of goods and oft-criticised service quality, the territory should import more workers to raise the labour market's competitiveness — that is how Hong Kong's competitiveness improves.
Targeted, limited import of technical talent
This optimisation addresses specific industries' staffing needs, importing technical talent in a classified, limited way — helping trades where veteran technicians are ageing with no successors. For strict gatekeeping, mainland-experienced applicants must have their work experience notarised by a mainland notary office and hold a "Special Operations Certificate" or similar work permit. Mainland notaries vary by province: some only certify the authenticity of submitted documents — that a company letter was indeed issued by that company — without guaranteeing the applicant actually did the work or was employed there.
Of course, Hong Kong's procedures first verify documents are genuine; individual cases of chicanery can't be entirely ruled out. But "show me, don't tell me": the trades being opened all demand specialist skills. Take lift engineers — those who fake understanding will be exposed the moment they must actually operate; even if admitted to Hong Kong, they'll be sent back. It may add procedural friction, but shouldn't create major safety risks for the E&M industry or the lift operations that bear on public safety.
Over-supply worries
On the industry's over-supply concerns: the E&M trade has about 6,200 registered practitioners with roughly 100 added yearly. Would a 3,000-person quota shock incumbents short-term? Worth considering.
Yet also note: few of Hong Kong's young generation will take lift maintenance with its irregular overtime — attrition in such trades is expected and inevitable, making pre-emptive talent import reasonable. The 3,000 cap is presumably a ceiling over time; markets adjust staffing per demand — no company with sufficient staff goes to lengths to import more. In theory and practice, expect reasonable dynamic adjustment under market mechanisms.
The pay inversion problem
Many technical trades struggle to attract locals mainly because of poor working environments, not low pay — a direct product of the new generation's unwillingness to toil, drawn instead to comfortable white-collar settings. In food service, many restaurants offer starting pay above HK$16,000 — while much of Hong Kong media pays master's graduates HK$16,000 or less, after layers of tests and selection. That inversion — blue-collar outbidding white-collar — is hardly a reasonable reality. Construction's general masons and steel-fixers earn up to HK$50,000 monthly; add heat-stop protections and, against a HK$20,000 average wage, construction workers are already high earners. Skilled construction workers may also step up — through importation — to foreman, supervisor, technical instructor, even subcontractor, earning more.
Labour groups speak as workers' advocates protecting entrenched interests — but one direct consequence of high wages and high costs is high property prices. Hong Kong's protection of local construction workers is paid for by homebuyers and renters through higher prices and rents, which in turn push up living and business costs overall — a vicious circle. Weigh it for yourselves.
The median-wage rule, drafted under labour-group pressure, itself contradicts Hong Kong's free-market mechanism. On one hand, employers hiring imported workers may hesitate amid restrictions and hassle; on the other, rigid wage floors — though meant to protect local pay — constrain the labour market's healthy development, suppress its natural competitiveness, and leave employers passive: bad for the economy and for labour relations.
Dynamic adjustment and a talent early-warning system
Given the market's realities, the authorities should dynamically adjust per-trade application quotas using employment and unemployment data plus medium-term needs; the Labour Department should periodically review participating companies' local-to-imported ratios and publish the data. Better still: build a talent early-warning system tracking dynamic shortage trends, updating a "talent demand index". For construction, catering and elderly care — gaps above 15% — set up close coordination with the mainland and fast-track approval: top up quickly when short, trim quickly when not.
Singapore's success is worth studying. Foreign domestic helpers — paid too little for any local taker — rely wholly on import; even higher-paid nurses, doctors and professionals need moderate import to close gaps. One adoptable feature: the "foreign worker levy" — ensuring imports don't depress local wages while adding revenue that eases the tax burden on residents and businesses, and restraining surplus labour from shocking the market. Government revenue rises; employer costs rise slightly; the labour market stays healthy and stable, and local pay doesn't fall.
Conclusion
In sum, the working class and its advocates must protect their interests — but also weigh the SAR's overall interest. High wages and costs quietly erode Hong Kong's overall competitiveness while bringing their own high property prices, rents and consumption costs. The wool comes from the sheep: those earning high wages should expect to pay the higher living costs that come with them.
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