Hong Kong pay growth slows as Guangdong accelerates, survey finds

Hong Kong workers received smaller pay rises this year as Guangdong’s wage growth picked up, with the starting salaries of university graduates edging closer to those of non-degree holders, an annual survey has found.

Hong Kong Baptist University released the findings of its 2026 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Pay and Benefits Survey on Thursday. It showed that companies in Hong Kong and Macau slowed pay rises this year.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 3.9 per cent between July and September, the highest since the period from November last year to January, the government revealed. The figure was 3.8 per cent in the previous rolling period, between June and August.

But Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said the labour force and total employment had risen further amid “a continued influx of fresh graduates and school leavers into the labour market”.