Hong Kong has imported over 37,000 non-local workers since the scheme allowing the recruitment came into effect two years ago, according to the latest official figures.
Labour and welfare chief Chris Sun said on Wednesday that authorities approved 35,589 non-local workers in the food and beverage (F&B) sector and 2,102 in the accommodation services industry between the launch of the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme in early September 2023 and September 2025.
The scheme aims to alleviate Hong Kong’s manpower crunch by relaxing rules for the recruitment of non-local labour for some 26 job categories, including junior cooks and hotel room attendants.
As of August this year, about 17,000 of the 37,000 non-local workers imported still worked in the city, according to Sun. The sheer majority – around 16,600 – were employed in the F&B sector, while the rest were in the accommodation services industry.
Sun disclosed the latest figures in a written reply to lawmaker Chau Siu-chung on Wednesday.
The labour and welfare chief also said that since the scheme was launched, the Labour Department had received 350 complaints against employers in relation to non-local labour in the F&B sector and three in the accommodation services industry.
Of the complaints, the Labour Department had completed 61 investigations and confirmed one case in which an employer fired local workers to hire non-local ones, Sun said. The case, involving a Chinese restaurant, was sanctioned, and the employer was barred from recruiting imported workers for two years.
Authorities sanctioned seven employers in total in 2024 and 2025 for violating employment laws and rules under the imported labour scheme, resulting in the withdrawal of approvals for them to recruit non-local workers, Sun added.
He also said that the Labour Department had conducted 324 inspections since June to strengthen oversight of employers regarding their compliance with the requirements under the imported labour scheme.
A total of 150 employers were asked to provide details regarding the ratio of their full-time local employees to imported workers, with no violations detected, Sun said.
The imported labour scheme has come under fire amid a rising unemployment rate in Hong Kong, with the construction and F&B sectors being the ones hit the hardest.
Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Monday show that the jobless rate in Hong Kong between July and September was 3.9 per cent, up from 3.7 in the previous period.
The construction industry logged a 7.2 per cent unemployment rate between July and September – the highest across all industries in the city – while the F&B sector recorded 6.8 per cent.
