Hong Kong physiotherapists face job crunch amid oversupply and budget cuts

Hong Kong physiotherapy graduates are facing a job crunch amid ongoing healthcare budget cuts and a surge in new practitioners entering the industry, with one representative saying 60 applicants had competed for one position in a remote care facility for elderly residents. Data also showed that the proportion of applicants admitted to Polytechnic University’s (PolyU) prestigious physiotherapy programme who ranked it among their top three choices – known as “Band A” – fell by around 9 percentage points from last year, suggesting the institution was selecting more students who were less committed to the profession. In an interview with the South China Morning Post earlier this month, Alexander Woo Chuen-hau, president of the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association, said that job competition in the industry had intensified since 2025. “There is an underlying demand for physiotherapists, but there is simply no budget to hire them after healthcare cuts became more pronounced in 2026, forcing all organisations to tighten their belts,” Woo said. He was referring to the government’s announcement last year of recurrent public expenditure cuts of 1 to 2 per cent for 2025-26, which would be extended to 2027-28. These budgetary constraints coincide with an unprecedented rise in the number of new practitioners entering the market. Woo said that previously, only one institution, PolyU, offered a physiotherapy programme, producing 150 bachelor’s degree holders and 48 master’s graduates annually. But starting in 2020, three other institutions – Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Saint Francis University and Tung Wah College – also launched physiotherapy programmes and, together with PolyU, produced 368 graduates this year. These three institutions will continue to have a total intake of 175 first-year physiotherapy undergraduates each year. The return of 200 to 300 foreign-trained physiotherapists to Hong Kong annually also added to the increasing glut of practitioners in a stagnant job market, Woo said. He cited the example of a remote care facility for elderly residents in Kwu Tung, an area in the North district near the border with Shenzhen, that drew an unprecedented 60 applicants for a single position. To maintain professional standards amid the oversupply, Woo called on the government to implement a standardised licensing examination for overseas-trained candidates who wanted to practise locally. Concerns about industry standards spilled onto social media following the release of Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS) results earlier this month, with prospective students noting that PolyU had accepted candidates with Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) scores below 25 points across their best five subjects. PolyU’s physiotherapy programme previously required higher scores and Band A placement, with an average intake score of around 30 points in the best five subjects out of a maximum of 35 under a general calculation method where the highest grade amounts to seven points. Some recent applicants expressed surprise at being admitted despite listing the programme outside their top three preferences. The lowered threshold caused some students to worry about their future job prospects, as they sensed that the traditionally elite discipline was not only taking in more applicants, but accepting those who chose physiotherapy as a safety option rather than their preferred career. “I deeply regret choosing physiotherapy four years ago,” one student wrote on Threads. “Now, I may soon become unemployed because the market is saturated … people will pay a price for their choice.” But Thomson Wong Wai-lung, associate professor and a programme leader at PolyU’s department of rehabilitation sciences, insisted that the university’s standards for accepting physiotherapy undergraduates remained robust. “This year, about 90 per cent of students were admitted from Band A, with average DSE scores remaining consistently above 30 points for their best five subjects over the years,” he said. However, according to official statistics, only one student out of 127, or 0.8 per cent of the total, was accepted into the programme last year as a non-Band A admission. This meant that more than 99 per cent of candidates named the programme as one of their top three choices last year. Wong’s figure of 90 per cent suggested a roughly 9-percentage-point drop in Band A admissions. But he remained upbeat about graduates’ prospects, saying more than 93 per cent of PolyU’s physiotherapy graduates had been hired in recent years by the Hospital Authority, non-governmental organisations, private clinics and international bodies. He also emphasised that Hong Kong maintained just 6.4 practising physiotherapists per 10,000 people, lagging far behind comparable economies such as Australia and Japan, which averaged around 16 per 10,000 each. “This disparity indicates that the underlying demand for rehabilitative services remains strong, offering sustainable, long-term career prospects for well-trained professionals across hospital, community, and private sectors,” he said.

Hong Kong physiotherapists face job crunch amid oversupply and budget cuts

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Professional group expects glut as growing number of local undergraduates and practitioners returning from overseas enter stagnant job market

Professional group expects glut as growing number of local undergraduates and practitioners returning from overseas enter stagnant job market