| Year | 1981 | 1986 | 1991 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 |
| No. | 73730 | 51309 | 82138 | 56945 | 49886 | 22543 | 28546 | 26880 |
| Year | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| No. | 19077 | 17920 | 22067 | 30812 | 37031 | 40695 | 50776 | 37977 |
| Year | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
| No. | 39753 | 54056 | 61386 | 71646 | 78574 | 81139 | 79835 | 75960 |
| Year | 2017 | 2018 | ||||||
| No. | 82016 | 88135 |
Operational Definitions
New jobs refer to the reported vacancies in the civil service and private sectors in the economy. Vacancies refer to unfilled job openings which are immediately available, and for which active recruitment steps are being taken on the survey reference date.
Footnote
All figures are collected from Census and Statistics Department since 1991. All figures refer to the position as in December, except those for the Civil Service sector for 1985 and onwards which refer to the first of January of the following year and those for the construction sites (for manual workers only) before 1990 which refer to the third quarter of the year.
As noted by the Census and Statistics Department, there are some economic activities not covered, viz. “the entire agriculture and fishing sector”, “construction sector except those manual workers at construction sites”, “hawkers and retail pitches except market stalls”, “taxis, public light buses, goods vehicles, barges, lighters and stevedoring services”, “public administration, veterinary services, religious organizations, authors and other independent artists, domestic helpers, and miscellaneous recreational and personal services”. As a result of the incomplete survey coverage in respect of some economic activities, figures are not meant to represent the overall situation and the entire labour market respectively. For closer conformity with the concept of vacancies adopted, the definition of civil service vacancies has been revised from the statistical month of June 1999, such that vacancies having arisen from posts pending deletion and posts held by temporary staff or reserved for other staff are excluded. Revision of the Statistics has been backdated to the statistical month of March 1996. All figures supplied are originated from the Quarterly Survey of Employment and Vacancies and the Quarterly Employment Survey of Construction Sites. Figures for the years of 1981 and 1986 are extracted from Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics. They refer to reported vacancies in the civil service and private sectors.
As noted by the Census and Statistics Department, there are some economic activities not covered, viz. “the entire agriculture and fishing sector”, “construction sector except those manual workers at construction sites”, “hawkers and retail pitches except market stalls”, “taxis, public light buses, goods vehicles, barges, lighters and stevedoring services”, “public administration, veterinary services, religious organizations, authors and other independent artists, domestic helpers, and miscellaneous recreational and personal services”. As a result of the incomplete survey coverage in respect of some economic activities, figures are not meant to represent the overall situation and the entire labour market respectively. For closer conformity with the concept of vacancies adopted, the definition of civil service vacancies has been revised from the statistical month of June 1999, such that vacancies having arisen from posts pending deletion and posts held by temporary staff or reserved for other staff are excluded. Revision of the Statistics has been backdated to the statistical month of March 1996. All figures supplied are originated from the Quarterly Survey of Employment and Vacancies and the Quarterly Employment Survey of Construction Sites. Figures for the years of 1981 and 1986 are extracted from Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics. They refer to reported vacancies in the civil service and private sectors.
