With businesses hammered by social-distancing measures, Hong Kong unemployment rate to rise again: government economist

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HONG KONG, Jan 9 (SCMP): Hong Kong’s unemployment rate, already at a 16-year high, will get worse before it gets better, a government economist predicted on Thursday, though further relief measures for industries slammed by the Covid-19 pandemic were on the way in the administration’s annual budget.

Andrew Au Sik-hung said the jobless figures for October to December would grow from the three months prior – when they hit 6.3 per cent – due to stringent social-distancing measures triggered by a fourth wave of coronavirus infections.