Imported labour for SMEs: timely relief or slow-acting poison?
"If I can't hire again soon, this cha chaan teng's twenty years will be over." The sigh belongs to Mr Chan, who runs one in Sham Shui Po with a recruitment notice that has hung by the door for over a month and drawn barely a handful of local applicants. His dilemma is the SME story in miniature: apply for imported workers and be accused of stealing local jobs, or don't apply and watch the business fail. For Hong Kong's small firms, is imported labour timely rain for a burning problem, or a slow poison with delayed effects?
The shortage is unambiguous. In Kwun Tong's industrial area, small factories report the same wall. "It's not that we won't hire locals — we can't," says Mr Lee, who runs a plastics plant. "Young people won't touch this trade: too hard, not glamorous enough. We offer over HK$20,000 a month and nobody comes." A survey by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Small and Medium Business found more than six in ten food-and-beverage and construction SMEs saying staff shortages were already hurting daily operations — a cha chaan teng forced to shorten its hours, a renovation firm turning down orders for want of workers. For many of these firms, imports became the rope thrown to a drowning business: with imported workers on board, they could finally operate normally again.
For labour-dependent SMEs the relief is real and immediate. Ms Wong, who runs a restaurant in Yuen Long, says that after bringing in two imported workers she restored full opening hours and turnover rose thirty per cent — on posts no local applicant had ever taken, so nobody's bowl was being grabbed. Labour groups and economists see a slower-acting risk instead: a ready supply of imported workers dulls the incentive to upgrade. "If a firm can hire imported workers any time it likes, what pushes it to improve working conditions or raise pay?" asks a labour representative, Mr Lee. An employer, speaking privately, is blunter: why spend money training locals when imports are cheaper and more compliant?
SME owners are therefore squeezed between criticism and survival. Every application means layers of approval plus awkward conversations with existing staff. "The hardest part is balancing everyone — keeping the company running and respecting how local employees feel," says Mr Lau, who runs a renovation business. Some owners have found a middle path: import workers for the basic posts while investing in local staff, moving them gradually into technical and supervisory roles. "We put imported workers on the groundwork and train our local people for the higher-skill jobs — everyone gains," is how one factory owner describes it.
The policy answer, experts suggest, is calibration rather than a blanket rule. Where posts genuinely cannot be filled locally, imports should be allowed — with guard-rails that keep the local market protected. Employers propose incentives the other way round, such as subsidies for firms that train local staff, alongside improvements to conditions and career ladders in the trades that struggle to attract. At root, the imported-labour question is the contradiction of an economy in transition: keeping the economy vital and protecting local employment have to be balanced carefully, and for an SME owner the choice is as much a test of corporate responsibility as a business decision.
What Hong Kong needs, ultimately, is not just an imported-labour policy but a coherent industrial and manpower plan — one that lets small firms stay competitive while creating better jobs for local workers. That road is not easy, but it is the one in front of the city.
If you run an SME and want to understand the application process and compliance support for imported labour, visit our process-and-fees page or message our advisory team on WhatsApp for professional advice.