‘Job support scheme has different aim now’

Labour and Welfare Secretary Law Chi-kwong said the design of the latest round of the Employment Support Scheme is different from its launch two years ago, adding that the aim now is to help bring about an economic recovery and lower unemployment thanks to various government measures.

This followed complaints by some people that the scheme came too late and failed to help firms that had already closed down amid the Omicron outbreak.

“The consumption voucher scheme is coming in April, and the Employment Support Scheme will be introduced in May. You can hire more and business will rise a bit. We hope the schemes would complement each other. And the sixth round of anti-epidemic fund is still running,” Law said on a television programme.

“The whole set of measures should be able to help the economy rebound overall.”

He pointed out that when the scheme was first launched at the peak of an outbreak in 2020, it was aimed at giving businesses a lifeline, and officials could not have conceived how the pandemic would unfold.

With the jobless rate now standing at 4.5 percent, the labour secretary said the figure could rise further in the near term, but he expressed optimism that it won’t hit 7.2 percent – its highest during the pandemic – or above.