Unemployment rate remains stable

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) has reported that based on the bureau’s latest data for the three-month period from October to December 2017, the unemployment rate in Macau continues to be stable at 1.9 percent. During that period, the underemployment rate was 0.3 percent, representing a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the September to November period.

The total labor force at the end of the year was 383,000 and the labor force participation rate stood at 69.9 percent. Total employment was 375,900 and the number of employed residents totaled 276,400, down by 1,600 and 2,100 respectively from the previous period.

The number of unemployed people was 7,100, representing a decrease of 300. Fresh labor force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 12.6 percent of the total unemployed, down by 2.2 percentage points.

For the whole year of 2017, the general unemployment rate was 2 percent, up by 0.1 percentage points year-on-year. The unemployment rate of residents was 2.7 percent, the same as in 2016.

In 2017, median monthly employment earnings stayed flat at MOP15,000, while the resident component earned on average MOP19,000 per month, up by MOP1,000 over a year earlier. As for median monthly earnings per household, the average increased by MOP400 to MOP28,400 in 2017.