Macao's Latest Unemployment Rate Stays Below 3 pct

Macao's unemployment rate for the period of April to June 2010 reached 2.8 percent, slightly going down by 0.1 percentage points over the previous period of March to May, according to the figures released on Tuesday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

The city's total labor force was 326,000 in the period, with the labor force participation rate standing at 71.6 percent, the DSEC figures indicated.

The DSEC also said that the number of the local unemployed stood at 9,300 in the period, of which fresh labor force entrants accounted for 7.5 percent, increasing by 2.1 percentage points over the previous period.

In comparison with the same period of 2009, the labor force participation rate and the unemployment rate between April to June this year decreased by one and 0.8 percentage point respectively, while the underemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point, according to the DSEC.

As for the second quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate of local residents stood at 3.4 percent, down by 0.3 percentage point quarter-to-quarter, the DSEC also said.