Unemployment Roundtable
本 年 本 港 經 濟 飽 受 外 圍 亞 洲 金 融 風 暴 及 內 部 經 濟 泡
沫 幻 滅 的 影 響 ， 以 致 經 濟 衰 退 和 失 業 率 急 升 ， 香 港
市 民 普 遍 對 香 港 政 府 的 政 策 表 示 不 滿 ， 本 文 集 合 不
同 學 者 專 家 對 失 業 問 題 的 討 論 ， 以 作 探 討 。
Mind the Gap! - Government
Failing the People's Test
T. L. Lui & C. K. Wong
In a small-scale telephone survey carried
out by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in May 1998, we asked our respondents to tell
us their perception of the problem of unemployment.[1] The result was alarming. Among our
822 respondents, 93.5% of them suggested unemployment in Hong Kong was a serious or very
serious issue. No doubt, unemployment had sparked public concern. Such response from the
respondents was by no means an emotional reaction to media reportage of economic recession
and rising unemployment. Rather, unemployment was found to be an issue close to their
everyday life. About 60% of the respondents had friends or relatives currently unemployed
at the time of interview. And among those respondents who knew friends and relatives in
unemployment, their jobless acquaintance ranged from 'one to two persons?(37.7%) to 'three
or more?(59.7%). Their perception that unemployment was a salient social problem was
firmly grounded in their real life experience. Nowadays, unemployment touches many
people's lives.
When the respondents were asked to comment on the performance of the
HKSAR government in tackling problems of unemployment and poverty, the average scores (10
denoted 'full marks?and 5 'pass? they had given to a list of statements were as follows:-
In short, in the eyes of the public, the government simply failed to cope with the rising
problems of unemployment, the widening of income inequality, and poverty. Government's
performance was considered least satisfactory in addressing
the issue of unemployment. Though the average score went up to 4.01 in the
respondents?assessment of retraining as a strategy to tackle unemployment, it was still
significantly below the passing grade.
People were not at all happy with the government's slow and passive reactions to problems arising from the longer term
structural changes and the recent downturn of the economy. Despite their disappointment
with the government's performance, about 25% of our
respondents still perceived the SAR government as the most effective agent to deal with
the problem of unemployment. Also, about the same proportion of the respondents suggested
that the SAR government should assume a leading role in designing new initiatives to
address the problem of unemployment and other related social issues. However, these survey
findings did not suggest a change in people's belief
of personal efforts and determination in coping with difficult situations. Indeed, more
than half of the respondents saw individuals?own efforts as the most effective strategy to
cope with a jobless environment.
Previous studies of work ethics and social mobility in Hong Kong also
confirmed that the people of Hong Kong emphasized self-reliance and individuals?efforts of
coping with hardship and making success. There were few signs suggesting an erosion of the
popular belief of 'personal efforts plus luck = success? People might become pessimistic
in an environment of drastic economic downturn. But so far the fear of promoting welfare
dependency and overloading the government by increasing welfare provisions continued to be
heard in public debates about the need of a welfare safety net in Hong Kong. The increase
in the number of recipients of government welfare provisions was more a consequence of
structural changes in the labour market and demographic compositions than of a change in
people's mentality.[2]
What was evident from our survey findings was not a psychological shift
towards dependency. There were rising expectations of a more active and positive role of
the government in dealing with problems arising from structural changes in the economy
(for instance, the hollowing-out of manufacturing industries) and demographic changes in
the social structure (for example, an aging population). But people did not expect the
government to become the job provider. Rather, the government is expected to assume a
positive role in the creation and opening of opportunities in order to provide individuals
with the socio-economic environment to strive for their own survival and welfare.
Many people are happy to be self-reliant and self-supporting. But not
all of them have the means and opportunities to stand on their feet in a period of
economic recession. People expect the government to act positively. That is, they expect
new initiatives from the government to attend to the needs of the needy and to create an
environment conducive to self-reliance and personal efforts for success. To suppress the
rising expectations is misreading people's mind and
will simply miss the point.
Notes:
[1] A telephone survey on people's attitudes towards unemployment, poverty and social policy was
carried out in May 1998. The samples were randomly selected and 822 interviews were
completed. The response rate was 51.6 per cent.
[2] The issue of welfare dependency was a topic thoroughly discussed in a policy forum on
'Unemployment, Poverty and Social Policy?organized by the Faculty of Social Science and
the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, held
in May 1998. Guest speakers from governmental as well as non-governmental organizations
shared the view that there was no evidence of a psychology of welfare dependency among
CSSA (Comprehensive Social Security Assistance) recipients.
Dr. Tai-lok Lui is an associate professor in the Department of
Sociology and Dr. Chack-kie Wong is an associate professor in the Department of Social
Work, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Pressure on CSSA
Nelson W. S. Chow
The worsening unemployment situation since
the end of last year has resulted in an unprecedented jump in the number of unemployed
persons applying for financial assistance.
For almost three decades since the introduction of public assistance
(now Comprehensive Social Security Assistance - CSSA) in 1971, the unemployed have
remained at only a few percent of the total number of cases. But now, out of 200,000
eligible CSSA cases, the unemployed are accounting for more than 12%, or 22,000 cases. And
the more than 100% increase of CSSA cases attributable to unemployment has occurred in
less than a year.
While the huge expenditure on CSSA predicted to exceed $11 billion for
1998-99 cannot totally be accounted for by the increase in unemployed applicants, the two
are no doubt closely related. Since expenditure on CSSA is an open-ended commitment of the
government and cannot in any way be reversed, it will continue to increase as long as more
residents in Hong Kong are financially unable to support themselves.
The increase in expenditure on CSSA not only implies a greater outlay
for the government's coffer, but also a stoppage to
the expansion of other social welfare services. It is obvious that in the coming year, the
government will have little to spare for other social welfare items, notwithstanding its
earlier commitments to their expansion and improvement.
The welfare sector, as well as the political parties standing for the
welfare of the people, will of course be displeased with the slowing down of the social
welfare development. However, unless the government is prepared to have a bigger budget
deficit, there seems little it can do to strike a compromise with those pushing for a
larger share of public resources for social welfare.
A more rational approach is for the government to sit down with the
non-government organizations(NGOs) responsible for the delivery of social welfare services
to work out a more effective and efficient way of deploying existing resources. This is of
course not easy, in view of the diverse interests of the government and the NGOs. But only
the recipients of social welfare services will suffer if the two sides come to a
stalemate.
There is no way for the government to stop eligible residents from
coming forward to apply for CSSA. The provision of a basic living is also too important to
the society's stability for the government to ignore.
Now is therefore the time for the entire social welfare sector to forget temporarily about
expansion and to concentrate on improving better services within limited resources.
Prof. Nelson W. S. Chow is the Chair and
Professor in the Department of Social Work & Social Administration, The University of
Hong Kong.
Unemployment Triggers
Need for More Services
Joyce Chang
In mid 1998, Caritas - H.K. Social Work Services published
two survey reports on the community-wide "Unemployment Problem".
In the survey done by Caritas Kowloon Community Centre in June 1998,
80% of the respondents (1948 member families) reflected that the recent unemployment wave
had affected them in many ways: (1) reducing recreational spending; (2) cutting overseas
trips; (3) minimizing overall family expenses; (4) decreasing family income; (5) lowering
the quality of life and (6) increasing emotional stress. The last one, given the lack of
appropriate services, may lead to serious family and societal problems. Fifteen percent of
the families interviewed reflected that they had to work longer hours, and experienced
increased family conflicts. In fact, among these interviewees, 15.3% had unemployed family
members.
The other survey was conducted by Caritas Community Development
Service. Twenty four lower-income workers were interviewed in January 1998. Half of them
had unstable job situations, and 70% had wages inadequate to make ends meet. In May 1998,
41 unemployed workers were interviewed: 20 of them became unemployed due to company
close-down, 21 were bread-winners and 19 experienced inadequate income to meet family
expenses. Over 56% had been unemployed for 1 to 3 months. From these findings, it was
noted that unemployed women were more ready to express their unemployment problem and to
seek outside assistance. Unemployed men tended more to conceal their problem and to rely
on themselves to resolve it.
In response to all these, what can be expected from the government and
non-government agencies?
The first aforementioned study revealed that the public welcomed the
government's rental reduction for stalls under the
Housing Authority and the two municipal councils. However, they had a low level of
confidence in those re-training programmes or various job-matching services provided by
the Labour Department.
Besides, in view of the increasing seriousness of the unemployment
problem which will surely create more personal stress, family conflicts and violence
affecting the stability of society in the long run, it is recommended that the government
allocates funds to subsidise agencies to provide more comprehensive services.
District-based unemployment support service units should be set up to
provide services which may include individual and group counselling, mutual support in job
searching, job-matching services and skill re-training and job-interview skills.
Activities in the counselling units can equip workers with knowledge and skills in
managing stress and depression, stimulate motivation to search for jobs and enhance
self-confidence in handling crisis situations.
A hotline service should be set up to provide emotional support to
those unemployed and their families. This service can also reflect the needs and problems
of these people periodically to the government and stimulate further concrete actions and
plans to assist them.
An internet service should be set up to serve the recent high
percentage of the unemployed middle-management group, to help them assess and release
their stress, provide job market information and community supportive resources.
Finally, there should be training programmes for the unemployed to
familiarize them with jobs in a new field. The government should also try to create jobs
through subsidizing the formation of new Co-ops and to allow split jobs.
Confronted with such an adverse economic situation in Hong Kong right
now, the government should widely publicize the existing and new services available to the
unemployed. This is of utmost importance.
Ms. Joyce Chang is the Head of the Social
Works Division, the Caritas - H.K
.HKPRI Public Confidence Index
(July 1997- September 1998)
The Hong Kong Policy Research Institute (HKPRI) has been
regularly conducting territary-wide Confidence Index Surveys since April 1996. The indices
aim to measure people's confidence in the political, economic and social development and
related issues.
Political Confidence
The confidence index on the "Performance of SAR government"
dropped to a new low in July 1998, so did the "Performance of the Chief
Executive". The public was generally dissatisfied with the government in its ways of
handling various issues such as the high interest rate, the housing policy and the series
of health hazards. In early September, the seven new financial measures introduced by the
Hong Kong Monetary Authority which had strengthened the linked exchange rate system and
reduced the volatility of local interest rate helped to boost the index to a recent high
(107.3). In late September, however, it returned to a low point (74.9). This shows that
people's confidence in the government is still in a trough.
Economic Confidence
The confidence index on "Economic
Prospects of Hong Kong" dropped to 65.1 in July 1998 as against 115.4 in July 1997.
The confidence index on "Maintenance of Livelihood" was worse, dropping to 63.2
in July 1998 as against 104.5 in July 1997. However, in early September, both indices
soared to 85.5 and 84.6 respectively. Since the introduction of the new measures by the
Hong Kong Monetary Authority, people have regained some confidence in economic prospects.
Social Confidence
The indices reflected problems in livehood issues. Indices on
"Quality of Life" and "Family Relationship" have declined sharply in
July 1998 as compared with those in July 1997.
This reflects that the economic well-being of individual households has
deteriorated, thus affecting the overall confidence. The indices have not risen much in
September even though the confidence in political and economic have improved.
|
