{
  "id": 10130092,
  "title": "Nursing graduates not jobless, health chief says",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/nursing-graduates-not-jobless-health-chief-says-10130092",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-09-27T03:49:23.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "RTHK News",
    "slug": "rthk-news",
    "url": "https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1871719-20260927.htm"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Health Minister Lo Chung-mau dismissed claims that local nursing graduates were unable to find employment, stating that the Hospital Authority currently has approximately 3,200 vacant nursing positions. However, out of the 4,000 nursing graduates from the previous year, only 2,500 applied for jobs at the Hospital Authority. Lo explained that nearly 40% of graduates chose not to apply for HA jobs, leaving the remaining applicants to undergo interviews and assessments. Of the 2,100 applicants who proceeded through these stages, 99% were hired, with only around 20 positions remaining unfilled due to various reasons. Consequently, Lo refuted the assertion that nursing graduates are unemployed upon graduation.\n\nLo emphasized that if nursing graduates are open to working at the Hospital Authority, they have a high likelihood of securing a position. The Secretary for Health also noted that the turnover rate among nurses in public hospitals has been decreasing over recent years, despite a persistent shortage of nurses in the public healthcare system. The health minister reiterated that nurses have diverse career options, including public institutions, care homes, private hospitals, and clinics. Additionally, Lo debunked the notion that local nurses were losing their jobs to non-locally trained staff. He highlighted that Hong Kong has a total of over 75,000 nurses, with only 55 (55 out of 30,000) of those employed by the Hospital Authority not being locally trained. These non-locally trained nurses supported positions that could not find suitable local candidates, without displacing any existing staff.\n\nPromoting primary healthcare, Lo disclosed that the number of district health centre members had increased by nearly 40% in the past year, reaching over 600,000. He stated that the city’s first five-year plan aims to further expand this number to a million.",
  "summary": "Health minister Lo Chung-mau on Sunday refuted a claim that local nursing graduates could not find a job. Speaking to reporters after a Commercial Radio programme, Lo said the Hospital Authority had around 3,200 nursing vacancies at the moment. However, among the 4,000 nursing graduates last year, only 2,500 of them applied for HA jobs. “It is not that the Hospital Authority does not hire them,…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "RTHK English",
        "title": "Nursing graduates not jobless, health chief says",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/nursing-graduates-not-jobless-health-chief-says",
        "published": "2026-09-27T03:49:23.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}