Hong Kong public service struggles with 20% or more vacancies in some departments
- Broadcaster RTHK has highest vacancy rate at 23.8 per cent – 175 jobs – unfilled; police force tops numbers game with 6,837 posts open, almost 18 per cent
- But Civil Service Bureau says higher percentage turnovers often involve smaller departments, where low numbers of leavers can skew figures
Hong Kong’s public service departments have almost 20,000 vacancies, with some having up to 20 per cent or more of posts unfilled as the number of retirees continues to rise.
The Civil Service Bureau revealed on Friday that RTHK, the city’s public broadcaster, had the highest vacancy rate, with 175 posts unfilled- 23.8 per cent – and the police force had the highest number of jobs available, 6,837, 17.9 per cent of its total establishment.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department registered a 20 per cent staff shortfall with 460 vacancies.
The Education Bureau recorded a 15.6 per cent vacancy rate with 983 posts unfilled.
The bureau revealed in a written reply to lawmakers that there were 172,549 civil servants across 78 government bureau and departments and 19,744 vacancies, a 10.3 per cent vacancy rate, in November last year.
It added that an average of 5,100 civil servants would retire annually over the next five financial years.
“According to the current policy guidelines, when the job nature, tasks and complexity of individual posts show a fundamental change, or when actual and sustained difficulty arises in recruitment and retention of talent, the government would consider the need for re-evaluation of organisational structures,” a bureau spokesman said.
Almost 4,000 civil servants from more than 200 departments quit over the 2022-23 and 2021-22 financial years.
There were 3,863 resignations in 2022-23 and 3,734 left their jobs in 2021-22.
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But officials added that higher percentages of vacancies in some departments did not show the entire picture.
“For departments with a higher turnover rate, most of them were smaller departments [within the government],” a bureau spokesman explained.
“This meant a small number of personnel leaving, such as retiring, would result in a high turnover rate.”
Government statistics also showed 1,124 public servants were punished with formal disciplinary action, including 524 cases involving serious misconduct, between 2018-19 and 2022-23.
Offences included breach of government or departmental rules and regulations, negligence and supplying false information or documents.
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There were also 600 cases involving criminal convictions which required formal disciplinary action, most of them involving Road Traffic Ordinance offences.
But the bureau said other cases included convictions for theft and deception, fraud and forgery.
Another 1,995 civil servants were disciplined for minor misconduct between 2018-19 and 2022-23.
The offences included breach of government or departmental rules and regulations, negligence, improper acts in office or insubordination.
The bureau in normal circumstances deals with minor transgressions through verbal or written warnings.
