Statistics
2014 Health Manpower Survey on Optometrists
Key Findings
1. The optometrists covered in the 2014 HMS were optometrists registered with the Optometrists Board of Hong Kong under the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance (Chapter 359) as at the survey reference date - 31.3.2014.
2. The number of optometrists covered was 2 097.
3. Of the 2 097 registered optometrists covered, 1 227 responded to the survey, giving an overall response rate of 58.5%. Of the 1 227 responding optometrists, 1 152 (93.9%) were economically active*†(active) whereas 75 (6.1%) reported to be economically inactive*‡ (inactive) in the local optometryprofession.
4. Of the 1 152 active optometrists, 1 144 (99.3%) were practising in the local optometry profession, seven (0.6%) were seeking jobs and one (0.1%) believed that work was not available in local optometry profession during the 30 days before the survey.
5. The survey findings presented below were based on the 1 144 responding optometrists who were practising in the local optometry profession as at 31.3.2014. As some questionnaires had missing responses, percentages presented below may not add up to 100%.
| (i) | Two optometrists did not indicate sex. Among the remaining 1 142 active optometrists enumerated, 890 (77.9%) were male and 252 (22.1%) were female, giving an overall sex ratio (males per 100 females) of 353. Six optometrists did not indicate the age and the median age of the remaining 1 138 active optometrists enumerated was 49.0 years. |
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| (ii) | Distribution by sector of the main job§ showed that 1 037 (90.6%) were working in the private sector, followed by 61 (5.3%) in the Government, academic and subvented sectors and 37 (3.2%) in the Hospital Authority. |
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| (iii) | 90.3% spent most of their working time on service of optometric care, followed by 5.5% on administration / management, 0.8% on research and 0.6% on teaching. |
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| (iv) | The median number of hours of work (excluding meal breaks) per week of the 1 144 active optometrists enumerated was 54.0 hours. 86 (7.5%) optometrists were required to undertake on-call duty (excluding normal duty), with a median number of 10.0 hours of on-call duty (excluding normal duty) per week. |
| * | In the survey, the criteria used in defining economically active / inactive followed those recommended by the International Labour Organization, which are also being used by the Census and Statistics Department in Hong Kong. |
| † | "Economically active" optometrists comprised all "employed" and "unemployed" optometrists. "Employed" optometrists referred to those optometrists practising in the optometry profession in Hong Kong during the survey period, while "unemployed" optometrists referred to those optometrists who (a) were not practising in the local optometry profession during the survey period; (b) had been available for work during the seven days before the survey; and (c) had sought work in the local optometry profession during the 30 days before the survey. |
| ‡ | "Economically inactive" optometrists comprised the optometrists who were not practising in the optometry profession in Hong Kong during the survey period, but excluding those who had been on leave during the survey period and who were "economically active" but "unemployed". |
| § | Main jobs referred to the jobs in which the optometrists had spent most of their working time. |
6. Among the 75 inactive optometrists:
| (i) | 22 optometrists reported practising overseas and nine optometrists reported practising in the Mainland. |
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| (ii) | 44 optometrists reported not practising in the optometry profession in Hong Kong and not seeking job in the local optometry profession during the 30 days before the survey. The reasons reported for not seeking job included: 19 (43.2%) were working in other professions, nine (20.5%) were engaged in household duties, eight (18.2%) were retired and six (13.6%) wanted to take rest / had no motive to work / had no financial need. |
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Activity Status of Optometrists Covered |