Aug-Oct unemployment unchanged at 2.9%

The city’s general unemployment rate was at 2.9% in the August to October period in 2020. This stayed unchanged from the previous period between July to September, the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) revealed.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate of local residents also remained the same, standing at 4.1% between August to October.
The DSEC’s latest statistics indicated that the city’s unemployment rate has been stable so far. The ongoing economic fallout brought about by the Covid-19 left thousands of people in the city unemployed since its outbreak.
Compared to the August to October period in 2019, the underemployment and unemployment rate increased by 4.7 and 1.1 percentage points respectively.
Among alla the industries, the tourism and gaming sectors have been hit the hardest by the pandemic. The number of people involved in gaming and junket activities and hotels and similar activities shrank from August to October.
Meanwhile, the majority of the unemployed people who were searching for new jobs from August to October were previously engaged in gaming and junket activities and retail trade, the DSEC indicated.
The one industry which bucked the trend was transport and storage, which experienced an increase in its labor force during the latest surveyed period.
Recently, locals have been perturbed that Macau may soon descend into another wave of economic distress as a number of economic relief measures will expire at the end of 2020.
This presentiment has prompted locals and lawmakers to press the SAR government to roll out the third stimulus package. Staff Reporter