The economic slump has cost Hong Kong around 10,000 jobs so far and unemployment will continue to rise in the months ahead, the territory's labour secretary said Saturday, dpa reported.
Matthew Cheung said it was "difficult to predict" when the city's jobless rate would peak and said there would be further pressure on the labour market when graduates leave schools in May.
However, despite the pressure on jobs, Cheung pointed out that industries such as catering and insurance were still expanding, offsetting some of the downturn's impact on the city of 6.9 million.
Cheung's comments came at the end of a week in which 200 jobs were axed at broadcasting Asia Television and protests were staged over anticipated job cuts at banking giant HSCB and telecom firm PCCW.
Hong Kong has been hit hard by the global economic slump, with share prices falling by 50 per cent since the beginning of 2008 and the city's jobless rate rising above 4 per cent.
The former British colony officially went into recession at the end of 2008. The job situation remains brighter than in 2003, however, when unemployment hit 8 per cent during the SARS crisis.