Unemployment rate continues to hold stable

The general unemployment rate (1.9 percent) and the unemployment rate of local residents (2.6 percent) both held stable in the February-April 2018 period as compared with the previous period, January-March 2018, according to the Statistics and Census Service. The underemployment rate was 0.5 percent, down by 0.1 percentage points. The total labor force amounted to 388,900 and the labor force participation rate was 70.5 percent. Total employment reached 381,500 and the number of employed residents totaled 280,800, up by 1,000 and 700 respectively from the previous period. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed dipped by 100 to 7,400 in the period, with fresh labor force entrants searching for their first job accounting for 5.1 percent of the total. In comparison with February-April 2017, the labor force participation rate and the unemployment rate dropped by 0.6 and 0.1 percentage points respectively.