Hong Kong’s government has repeatedly argued that an ageing population is driving labour shortages, using this to justify a rapid expansion of imported labour schemes.
Demographic change is undoubtedly part of the picture. But official statistics suggest another problem has received far less attention: a growing share of local people are no longer participating in the labour market at all.
The labour force participation rate, the proportion of people aged 15 and over who are working or actively seeking work has fallen steadily over the past three decades, from 60.6% in 1996 to just 54.6% in 2025.
While older people naturally participate less in the workforce, the sharpest decline has come from an unexpected group: young people.
Youth participation has fallen by more than 40%
Labour force participation among 15- to 24-year-olds has fallen from 49% in 1996 to just 27.9% last year, a decline of more than 40%.
The drop is even steeper among teenagers. Participation among 15- to 19-year-olds has fallen from 20.1% to only 6.6%, a two-thirds decline over three decades.
Part of this reflects more young people staying in education. But it also points to a labour market where entry-level opportunities have become increasingly difficult to find, particularly for school leavers without higher qualifications.
The introduction of Hong Kong’s statutory minimum wage in 2011 briefly encouraged more young people into low-paid work by raising wages in sectors such as retail and hospitality. That improvement, however, proved temporary. Since 2017, youth participation has resumed its decline.
Labour groups argue that the government’s recent expansion of imported labour has intensified competition for many entry-level and lower-paid jobs, further reducing opportunities for local young workers.
More than 36,000 young people are neither working nor studying
The decline is reflected in another worrying indicator.
Last year, around 36,200 young people in Hong Kong were classified as NEETs – not in education, employment or training, representing 6.3% of the city’s youth population.
That is considerably higher than comparable figures in Japan (2.3%) and Singapore (3.8%).
For labour advocates, the concern is not simply unemployment. Young people who spend prolonged periods outside both education and work often face lasting disadvantages in earnings, career progression and social mobility.
Women continue to face barriers to work
Another large source of untapped labour is women in their prime working years.
Although the overall gap between male and female labour force participation has narrowed over the past three decades, women aged 35 to 59 remain significantly less likely to be in paid work.
Among people aged 40 to 44, for example, 94.7% of men participated in the labour market last year, compared with just 71.4% of women.
Women’s labour force participation increased gradually until 2018 as campaigners called for more childcare and family-friendly employment policies. Since then, however, participation has fallen again.
Labour organisations argue that many women continue to leave the workforce because affordable childcare, after-school care and flexible working arrangements remain inadequate.
Imported labour cannot solve structural problems
Hong Kong has also seen more older people remain economically active, with labour force participation among those aged 60 and above increasing steadily over the past three decades.
Yet rather than focusing on the barriers preventing local people from working, the government’s response has centred on recruiting workers from overseas.
Critics argue that this risks treating labour shortages as a simple numbers problem while overlooking deeper structural issues.
Young people struggling to secure their first job, women forced out of work by caring responsibilities, and older workers lacking workplace support all represent labour that already exists within Hong Kong but remains underused.
For trade unions and labour rights groups, expanding imported labour without strengthening childcare, family-friendly workplaces, youth employment opportunities, regulated working hours and decent wages risks leaving these problems unresolved.
A shrinking workforce is not only the result of demographic change. It is also shaped by policy choices—and by who is able to participate in the labour market in the first place.
Table 1: Labour force participation rate by age
| Age group / Year | 1996 | 2025 | Difference |
| 15-24 | 49% | 27.9% | Fell by 43％ |
| 15-19 | 20.1% | 6.6% | Fell by 67％ |
| 20-24 | 77.3% | 47.9% | Fell by 38％ |
| 25-29 | 88.7% | 85.6% | Fell by 3.5% |
| 30-34 | 82.2% | 86.9% | Rose by 5.7% |
| 35-39 | 76.5% | 84.4% | Rose by 10％ |
| 40-44 | 75.6% | 82.1% | Rose by 8.6% |
| 45-49 | 74.8% | 80.9% | Rose by 8.2% |
| 50-54 | 67.6% | 77.7% | Rose by 15％ |
| 55-59 | 53.8% | 69.8% | Rose by 30％ |
| 60-64 | 31.4% | 49.4% | Rose by 57％ |
| 65 and over | 7.5% | 13.4% | Rose by 79％ |
| 15 and over | 60.6% | 54.6% | Fell by 9.9% |
Table 2: Labour force participation rate by gender
| Gender / Year | 1996 | 2011 | 2019 | 2025 |
| Male | 75.7% | 68.4% | 65.5% | 62.3% |
| Female | 45.1% | 49.1% | 50.6% | 47.9% |
| Both genders | 60.6% | 58.4% | 58.6% | 54.6% |
| Gender differences | 30.6 percentage points | 19.3 percentage points | 14.9 percentage points | 14.4 percentage points |