Youth Unemployment in Hong Kong

The youth unemployed should be one the groups the most in need for financial support in Hong Kong. They face keen competition and suffer from the local economic regression, which create difficulty to them earning a living. Young people, in general, refers to people in the age groups of 15-19 and 20-24 (Chung Kim-wah 2009). They are recognized as labor force in Hong Kong, but their employment opportunities are not optimistic. Those school leavers in the age of 15-24 entering the labor market have little competitiveness compared graduate job applicants, especially when the supply of graduate workers are so abundant in the market (Chung Kim-wah 2009). The unemployment rate of them keeps rising and reached 19.5% in 2008 (Youth Study Series 2009). Those unemployed receive no salary while they need money for daily expenses, creating potential financial burden on them. Facing competition among themselves, the young graduates are not any better either. Nowadays, the large number of graduates makes the labor market saturated, providing the employers so many choices (Chung Kim-wah 2009), not to mention that a number of them are still obliged to pay for their grad loan. The young unemployed population, both graduates and non-graduates, have to compete fiercely for the limited job positions in the market. Such pessimistic employment prospect has strong relation to Hong Kong economic regression, which causes shrinkage in labor market (Youth Study Series 2009). While the number of job vacancies is declining, more and more young school leavers and fresh graduates enter the marekt seeking for jobs, resulting in increasing unemployment. Both the problems of vigorous competition and economic slowdown cannot be easily solved and need a long term economic adjustment. The young unemployed have little to do to escape from the predicament. Financial support from the government may give temporary but necessary assistance to them.
The form of financial support given may affect the extent of assistance to the young unemployed. First, I suggest that further education fund and scheme should be set up for the young people to further study. Under the scheme, courses of different professions, ranging from information technology to business management, should be provided to young school leavers. They could take courses according to their own interest. After they acquire different skills, they can re-enter into labor markets of their respective professions. In this way, labor supply can be diversified and competition can be reduced.
Also, the government can also subsidize local companies who are going to recruit young employees. In this time of economic hardship, companies may not dare to bear the risk to expand their crews. With government subsidy, some companies may react with incentive and are be willing to provide job positions to the young unemployed, creating some job vacancies for them.
References
Chung, Kim-wah. Huge Supply of Graduates the Cause of Youth Unemployment. Ed. Joseph Li. China Daily, 26 Sept. 2009. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. .
Youth Study Series No.41: The Impact of Youth Unemployment in the Midst of the Global Financial Crisis. Rep. Youth Research Centre, Feb. 2009. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. .

References: Chung, Kim-wah. Huge Supply of Graduates the Cause of Youth Unemployment. Ed. Joseph Li. China Daily, 26 Sept. 2009. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. . Youth Study Series No.41: The Impact of Youth Unemployment in the Midst of the Global Financial Crisis. Rep. Youth Research Centre, Feb. 2009. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. .