Hong Kong physiotherapists face job crunch amid oversupply and budget cuts

Hong Kong physiotherapy graduates are struggling to find jobs due to an oversupply of practitioners and budget cuts in the healthcare sector. In a remote care facility for elderly residents, there were 60 applicants competing for just one position. The proportion of applicants admitted to Polytechnic University's prestigious physiotherapy programme who ranked it among their top three choices (Band A) fell by nearly 9 percentage points from the previous year.

Alexander Woo, president of the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association, attributes the intensifying competition in the industry to government budget cuts and the influx of new practitioners. Hong Kong previously had only one institution offering a physiotherapy programme, but three other institutions launched their own programmes in 2020, raising the number of graduates this year to 368.

Additionally, around 200 to 300 foreign-trained physiotherapists return to Hong Kong annually, contributing to the growing oversupply. To address the issue, Woo urges the government to implement a standardized licensing examination for overseas-trained candidates. Concerns about industry standards have surfaced on social media, with some students admitting to PolyU despite listing the programme outside their top three preferences due to the lowered threshold for acceptance.

PolyU maintains robust standards, with about 90% of students admitted from Band A, and a high job placement rate for graduates in hospital, community, and private sectors. Hong Kong has only 6.4 practicing physiotherapists per 10,000 people, far behind countries like Australia and Japan, indicating strong demand for rehabilitative services and promising career prospects for well-trained professionals.