Hong Kong rules out talent scheme caps despite squeeze on jobs for local graduates

Hong Kong authorities have no plans to adjust talent-hunting schemes or cap the number of non-local graduates permitted to seek employment in the city, the labour minister has said, pointing to a rapidly ageing population and persistent manpower shortages across pillar industries.

But lawmakers representing employees told the minister that local university graduates found it hard to find jobs, particularly those who did not have a background in innovation and technology, and faced keen competition from both locals and non-locals.

Chris Sun Yuk-han, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, told the legislature on Wednesday that the city’s policy on trawling for and retaining talent was driven by the peak in its working population in 2018 and its ageing demographic shrinking the workforce.

He argued that Hong Kong still needed to import talent.

“Of course we understand the implementation of these policies has room for improvement, and we take a look from time to time … but at the moment we do not see that there is a need for drastic adjustment,” Sun said.

When the government launched a major drive to “trawl for talent”, starting with Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s 2022 Policy Address, Hong Kong faced an emigration wave, pandemic restrictions and a rapidly ageing population.

Authorities rolled out new pathways and revamped existing schemes, including the launch of the Top Talent Pass Scheme, allowing eligible individuals to secure a visa without first having a job offer in the city. Most visa holders under the scheme came from mainland China.

Sun said more than 320,000 talented people had moved to Hong Kong from across the world under the city’s talent admission schemes.

He argued that local graduates enjoyed “the natural advantage” when seeking jobs and were the core workforce in the city.

Lawmaker Lam Wai-kong, from the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU), questioned whether there would be any projections or strategic plans to cap talent admission to prevent an over-importation of talent that could damage local employment priority.

Bill Tang Ka-piu, another HKFTU lawmaker said that about 25,000 non-local graduates had come to Hong Kong to study and stayed in the city to seek jobs under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG) scheme.

Such a large number of graduates created difficulties for their local counterparts, particularly those without innovation and technology expertise, Tang added.

“These 25,000 non-local graduates do not all have a background in innovation and technology, and they would add more difficulties for local graduates to find jobs,” he said, questioning the authorities on whether there would be a cap on the scheme.

Secretary Sun said that the scheme gave non-local graduates two years to seek jobs in Hong Kong and that their visas would only be renewed if they were employed.

He argued that the biggest part of the employment market in Hong Kong was not innovation and technology, but business, commerce and professional services, which still required a large amount of manpower to drive the economy.

“If we only rely on our local graduates to work in these industries, our workforce is far from enough to support Hong Kong’s economic development,” he said.

The authorities also said that they were discussing manpower training with Hong Kong universities.

According to Sun, the government had commenced preparations for the 2028-29 to 2030-31 triennial planning exercise with public universities, with a keen focus on talent cultivation and manpower trends in technological and industrial development.

“It is to strengthen the alignment between the knowledge and skills of the younger generation and Hong Kong’s future economic and social development,” he said.