The government will help train white-collar workers to support career transitions amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said on Saturday.

This comes as the Labour and Welfare Bureau estimated in its latest manpower projection that Hong Kong would face a shortage of around 130,000 workers by 2028 – sharply down from a previous forecast of 180,000.

Speaking on a Commercial Radio programme, Sun said the improved labour force projections reflected the impact of rapid AI advancements.

Looking ahead, he said enterprises were likely to change their recruitment approach, demanding staff be equipped with both AI capabilities and industry expertise.

Sun estimated that Hong Kong would require roughly 15,000 to 20,000 of these skilled workers in the coming years.

“So for those currently employed, especially those doing ordinary white-collar clerical work whom we worry may be faced with a higher chance of being replaced by AI, we want to use Upskill Hong Kong to offer AI training courses so they can master more AI skills earlier,” he said.

“They are already familiar with the industry, and with AI empowerment on top of that, it allows some of them to transform and transition to jobs that combine the two.”

Upskill Hong Kong, currently known as the Employees Retraining Board, is set to be renamed and given expanded statutory functions to offer advanced training courses for better-educated workers.

Sun also pointed out that new graduates were struggling to find work as businesses hesitated to hire amid rapid technological advances.

This is why, he stressed, the government announced measures in its latest Policy Address to work with major employers and trade associations to offer young people an additional 10,000 full-time jobs lasting at least six months over two years.

Under the scheme starting from the first quarter of 2027, the government will subsidise wages by paying up to HK$6,000 or a third of monthly salaries for the first six months.



Edited by Robert Kemp