Unemployment rate remains unchanged

The unemployment rate for the October-December 2016 held stable as in the previous period (September-November 2016) at 1.9 percent. According to data released by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) yesterday, the underemployment rate was 0.6 percent, down by 0.1 percentage points.

Total labour force was 392,600 and the labour force participation rate stood at 71.8 percent. Total employment decreased by 500 from the previous period, at 385,000. The number of unemployed persons was 7,600, similar to that in September-November 2016. Fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 8.9 percent of the total unemployed, down by 5.8 percentage points.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, the unemployment rate of local residents (2.7 percent) increased slightly by 0.1 percentage points. Total employment decreased by 9,200 quarter-to-quarter. Analyzed by industry, employment in the construction sector (37,200) dropped by 7,900, following the successive completion of large-scale entertainment facilities. Meanwhile, employment in Health & Social Welfare (13,400) rose by 1,600. Median monthly employment earnings of both the employed (MOP15,000) and employed residents (MOP18,000) remained unchanged from the third quarter of 2016.

For the whole year of 2016, the general unemployment rate stood at 1.9 percent and the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.7 percent, up by 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively year-on-year. Median monthly employment earnings of both the employed (MOP15,000) and employed residents (MOP18,000) stayed flat from the previous year. With regard to household employment,  the average number of employed persons per household was 1.7 in 2016, down by 0.1 year-on-year, and the median monthly employment earnings per household remained unchanged from 2015, at MOP28,000.