Unemployment rate sees slight increase at end of 2025

The unemployment edged up slightly at the end of 2025, with the rate among local residents rising to 2.3% while underemployment remained stable, according to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

The figure remained unchanged from the previous period (September–November 2025), while the underemployment rate of local residents remained stable at 2%.

Still, at the end of December last year, the general unemployment rate was 1.8%, a slight 0.1-percentage-point increase from the previous period.

Concurrently, the general underemployment rate remained at 1.5%.

Among the unemployed residents (6,800), the majority of those seeking employment were previously employed in retail trade and the gaming sector.

At the same time, the share of new labor market entrants seeking their first job fell by 3.5% to 10.9% of the unemployed residents.

Among the underemployed residents (5,900), the majority worked in the transport & storage and real estate & business activities sectors.

The median monthly employment earnings for employed residents and the total employed population in the fourth quarter of 2025 were MOP20,000 and MOP17,300, respectively.

The DSEC survey covered all residential units in the Peninsula, Taipa, and Coloane, excluding collective living quarters such as dormitories and elderly care homes.

Based on preliminary estimates derived from movement records, an average of about 109,500 SAR residents and nonresident workers commuted to Macau for work but lived outside the territory during the reference period.

The total labor force, comprising these individuals and Macau’s labor force (386,100), increased by 700 to 495,600 over the previous period. RM