MACAO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The general unemployment rate in Macao from December 2018 to February 2019 held stable at 1.7 percent over the previous period from November 2018 to January 2019, the special administrative region's statistic service said here on Wednesday.
The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.3 percent, down by 0.1 percentage point, while the underemployment rate was 0.5 percent, up by 0.1 percentage point.
Total labour force was 394,800 and the labour force participation rate was 70.8 percent. Total employment was 388,100 and number of employed residents totalled 283,600, down by 3,400 and 3,500 respectively from the previous period.
Analyzed by industry, employment in gaming and junket activities decreased while that in hotels, restaurants and similar activities increased.
The DSEC report added that the number of the unemployed was 6,700, down by 200 from the previous period. New labour market entrants seeking their first job accounted for 6.6 percent of the total unemployed, down by 7.1 percentage points from the previous period.
In comparison with the period from December 2017 to February 2018, the unemployment rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points, while the labour force participation rate and the underemployment rate rose by 0.6 and 0.1 percentage points respectively.
