Briefs | Employment rate holds steady

The general unemployment rate for the three-month period, December 2016 to February 2017, held at 2 percent, information from the Statistics and Census Service released yesterday indicated. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.8 percent and the underemployment rate stood at 0.5 percent. All three indicators held stable as in the previous three-month period between November 2016 and January 2017. The total labor force during the period was 387,000 and the labor force participation rate stood at 70.9 percent. Total employment was 379,100 and the number of employed residents totaled 277,100, down by 2,800 and 800 respectively from the previous period. The number of the unemployed was 7,900, similar to that in the previous period. Fresh labor force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 8.4 percent of the total unemployed, up by 0.8 percentage points.

GCS to launch Facebook page

The Government Information Bureau is to launch a Facebook page today, in order to enhance its engagement with the public and to allow more convenient access to government-issued information. According to a statement issued yesterday, the main topics covered include government events, public policy matters and live streaming of special news topics, as well as videos and photograph collections produced by the bureau. Information shared on the page will be in Chinese.