Simon Leung, an experienced event coordinator in the social work sector, has been unemployed for nearly 18 months and said he would settle for a job as a security guard or a mooncake production assistant in Hong Kong.

The jobseeker, who holds a civil engineering degree from Queen’s University in Canada, has been surviving as a gig worker after working for a non-governmental organisation.

“As the government’s budget for NGOs was cut by 7 per cent, my contract was not renewed when the financial year ended in March [last year],” Leung, 47, told the Post.

He was among 3,200 jobseekers at a recent Labour Department job fair.

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate jumped to 3.7 per cent in the May to July period, the highest in 33 months, according to statistics released on Tuesday. It rose from 3.5 per cent between April and June.

The rising joblessness was a contrast to the city’s economic growth of 3.1 per cent year on year in the second quarter and 3 per cent in the first three months.