Other personal services workers

How to become an undertaker or embalmer

Official title: Undertakers and embalmers

Also called: Embalmer, Undertaker

Undertakers and embalmers arrange funerals and perform various tasks in the disposal of human remains.

Main tasks

Making arrangements for and conducting funerals, cremations and burials
Embalming human remains to retard or arrest the process of decay
Conforming to health and sanitation and ensuring that legal requirements concerning embalming are met
Incising and closing incisions on various parts of the body and reshaping or reconstructing disfigured or maimed human remains when necessary
Dressing human bodies and placing them in caskets
Conducting interviews to arrange for preparation of obituary notices, to assist with the selection of caskets or urns, and to determine the location and time of burials or cremations

Median pay: HK$16,500 a month
About 732,700 people in 2025, and about 740,500 projected by 2028. (+1.1%)
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Usually not. Only 6% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Census and Statistics Department (2021 Population Census): 2021 Population Census, Interactive Data Dissemination Service: working population by occupation (38 groups) and sex, age, education, income; median income and field of education (9 groups) (2021 Population Census), retrieved 4 October 2026
Census and Statistics Department (General Household Survey): Median monthly employment earnings by occupation (9 groups), excluding foreign domestic helpers (Table 210-06317A); employed persons by occupation, age and sex (210-06307A) and by industry (210-06308A) (2025 annual (series to 2026-07)), retrieved 4 October 2026
Census and Statistics Department (Annual Earnings and Hours Survey): Monthly and hourly wage percentiles by occupational group (5 groups) (Tables 220-23014, 220-23024, 220-23003) (2025 (May to June 2025), released 2026-03-23), retrieved 4 October 2026
Labour and Welfare Bureau; tables published by C&SD: Mid-term Update of Manpower Projection to 2028: supplementary statistical tables (5 occupation groups, 17 selected industries) (2025 to 2028 (published 2026-09)), retrieved 4 October 2026
International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026

Updated 4 October 2026