A growing elderly population and low birth rate are threatening to leave Hong Kong with a labour shortage by as early as 2018, dpa quoted a government study as publishing Friday. The manpower study predicts the city will be short of 14,000 workers within six years as baby boomers continue to retire leaving jobs unfilled. It is the first time the on-going study, which began in 1988, has predicted a labour shortage in the city of 7.1 million. The demand for workers with a middle level of education will be strongest, it said, with a shortage of 22,000 workers, compared to a shortfall of 500 for those with degrees. However, there would be a predicted surplus of 8,500 workers at the lowest education level, the report said. The government has pledged to take action to attract more talented workers by streamlining visa processes and encouraging overseas students studying in the city to stay on after graduation. There is no statutory retirement age in Hong Kong, but around 300,000 people are expected to retire between now and 2018, as baby boomers, defined as people born in the period after 1945, turn 65. Employers are set to find it hard to fill the jobs they leave behind. The shortage of young workers is due to the city's low birth rate, currently around 1.04 children for every woman, far below the replacement rate of 2.1 children.
