Statistics
2014 Health Manpower Survey on Occupational Therapists
Key Findings
1. The occupational therapists covered in the 2014 HMS were occupational therapists registered with the Occupational Therapists 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 occupational therapists covered was 1 608.
3. Of the 1 608 registered occupational therapists covered, 925 responded to the survey, giving an overall response rate of 57.5%. Of the 925 responding occupational therapists, 865 (93.5%) were economically active*† (active) while 60 (6.5%) reported to be economically inactive*‡ (inactive) in the local occupational therapy profession.
4. Of the 865 active occupational therapists, 859 (99.3%) were practising in the local occupational therapy profession, two (0.2%) were seeking jobs and four (0.5%) were waiting to take up a new job in the local occupational therapy profession or having temporary sickness during the 30 days before the survey.
5. The survey findings presented below based on the 859 responding occupational therapists who were practising in the local occupational therapy profession as at 31.3.2014. As some questionnaires had missing responses, percentages presented below may not add up to 100%.
| (i) | Two occupational therapists did not indicate sex. Among the remaining 857 active occupational therapists enumerated, 264 (30.8%) were male and 593 (69.2%) were female, giving an overall sex ratio (males per 100 females) of 45. 14 occupational therapists did not indicate age and the median age of the remaining 845 active occupational therapists enumerated was 36.0 years. |
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| (ii) | Distribution by sector of the main job§ showed that 428 (49.8%) were working in the Hospital Authority, followed by 275 (32.0%) in the subvented sector, 90 (10.5%) in the private sector, 42 (4.9%) in the academic sector and 24 (2.8%) in the Government. |
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| (iii) | 85.7% spent most of their working time on rehabilitation, followed by 7.3% on administration / management, 2.8% on teaching, 2.7% on primary health care¶ and 0.8% on research. |
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| (iv) | The median number of hours of work (excluding meal breaks) per week of the 859 active occupational therapists enumerated was 44.0 hours. 25 (2.9%) occupational therapists were required to undertake on-call duty (excluding normal duty), with a median number of 7.0 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" occupational therapists comprised all "employed" and "unemployed" occupational therapists. "Employed" occupational therapists referred to those occupational therapists practising in the occupational therapy profession in Hong Kong during the survey period, while "unemployed" occupational therapists referred to those occupational therapists who (a) were not practising in the local occupational therapy 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 occupational therapy profession during the 30 days before the survey. |
| ‡ | "Economically inactive" occupational therapists comprised the occupational therapists who were not practising in the occupational therapy 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 occupational therapists had spent most of their working time. |
| ¶ | Primary health care referred to the work such as health education, health promotion, etc. or the work involving patient care in the primary care setting. |
6. Among the 60 inactive occupational therapists:
| (i) | Ten occupational therapists reported practising overseas and seven reported practising in the Mainland. |
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| (ii) | 42 occupational therapists reported not practising in the occupational therapy profession in Hong Kong and not seeking job in the local occupational therapy profession during the 30 days before the survey. The reasons reported for not seeking job included: 24 (57.1%) were working in other professions, 11 (26.2%) were engaged in household duties, and three (7.1%) were retired, etc. |
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Activity Status of Occupational Therapists Covered |