Hong Kong's top officials on Sunday pledged multiple measures to protect jobs with unemployment rate expected to rise further against the backdrop of a business environment battered by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The government is scheduled to announce on Monday the first quarter unemployment rate which is predicted to rise from 3.7 percent to the highest in nine years.

Writing in his blog, Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said the HK$137.5-billion relief fund, approved by the legislature on Saturday, would bring about not only wage subsidies but also job opportunities.

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Some HK$80 billion of the fund would be allocated to provide wage subsidies for six months to businesses hit hardest by the pandemic in a bid to save 1.5 million jobs. The private sector has meanwhile created 30,000 new jobs for people with different skills and qualifications.

The government would also recruit more than 10,000 civil servants and accept 5,000 interns this year, said Cheung. People interested in civil service posts can apply to sit for the Common Recruitment Examination and a Basic Law test before 5 pm on April 29. The examination is tentatively scheduled for June.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po wrote in his online blog that the government would also make efforts to support enterprises and leverage market resources to protect jobs.

Starting Monday, a total of HK$50 billion of low interest loans will be up for application to help businesses, he said. It is expected to take 10 to 14 working days for banks to process each application.

The second round of the relief package would benefit more than 2 million people, with a total expenditure of more than 90 billion yuan targeted at job protection, according to the finance chief.

The initial round of relief measures, approved on Feb 21, provided HK$30 billion for pandemic relief measures. Over HK$8 billion of that fund has already been disbursed.

In an open letter to Hong Kong people, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong identified stopping loss of jobs as the most pressing task for the government at present.

According to him, the basic unemployment protection system relies on the Severance Payment, or Long Service Payment payable by the employers, and the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme.

The government would double the amount of the asset ceiling in the means test for a duration of six months to allow more families with unemployed people to qualify for CSSA, Law wrote in the letter. About 40 000 families are expected to benefit from the arrangement.