Policy Address 2025: Hong Kong to enforce stricter employment ratio in labour import scheme

Hong Kong will require employers to maintain more stringently a ratio of local and imported workers, leader John Lee has said, as the government moves to close loopholes in a labour import scheme.

Starting Thursday, when applying to import waiters and junior cooks under the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS), employers will be required to enforce the ratio based on the positions they are trying to fill, rather than across their total workforce, the chief executive said during the annual Policy Address on Wednesday.

The new policy will ensure that locals are prioritised and combat the abuse of a labour importation scheme, he added.

“In other words, an employer applying to import a waiter or waitress and a junior cook must have already employed two local full-time waiters or waitresses and two local full-time junior cooks,” Lee said.

Longer local hiring window, job fairs

The government will also require a longer six-week local recruitment period before employers are allowed to start hiring from mainland China.

“The above measures aim to combat abuse in a targeted manner, focusing on job categories with more imported workers,” he said.

The six-week requirement is an increase from the previous four weeks required under the ESLS, introduced in 2023 to alleviate the city’s manpower crunch.

Lee also said on Wednesday that employers must attend weekly on-site job fairs held by the Labour Department to recruit locals before hiring non-local workers.

The new measures come amid criticism of the labour import scheme and rising unemployment rates in some sectors, particularly in the food and beverage and construction sectors.

Meanwhile, emerging cases of employers abusing the mechanism by favouring imported workers over locals have also stoked concerns about the scheme. Under the scheme, companies must pay non-local workers no less than the median monthly wage for that job.

The chief executive defended the ESLS on Wednesday. “As our population continues to age, Hong Kong faces a declining labour force. Importing labour on an appropriate scale helps ease manpower shortages and serves Hong Kong’s overall interests,” Lee said.

Most non-local workers are migrant workers from mainland China.

The government said it approved more than 54,000 non-local workers between September 2023, when the scheme began, and the end of March this year.

The authorities are expected to conduct a review of the mechanism as the scheme’s current term comes to an end this month.

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