Unemployment remains stable

The unemployment rate, which now sits at 1.9 percent, remained stable for the August-October period – as did the underemployment rate, at 0.5 percent – according to information from the Statistics and Census Service. Little change was observed from the previous July-September period. The total labor force for the August-October period stood at 402,000, while labor force participation rate was 73.2 percent. The number of employed persons decreased by just 400 from the previous period, at 394,500. The number of unemployed persons was 7,500, indicating a decrease of by 100 from July-September. Labor force entrants searching  for their first job accounted for 11.9 percent of the total number of unemployed individuals. In comparison with the same period last year, August-October 2014, the labor force participation rate decreased by 1 percentage point, while both the unemployment and the underemployment rates increased by 0.2 percentage points.

Veteran gaming exec joins Saipan casino resort

Veteran casino executive Yiu Ling Kwong has been appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Hong Kong-listed, Imperial Pacific International Holdings’ Saipan casino resort project. Yiu Ling Kwong, who has over 40 years of experience in the Macau gaming industry, most recently served as executive vice-president of casino operations for Macau-based MGM China Holdings Ltd. Imperial Pacific commended his experience in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and noted his “support of casino and gaming operations, as well as of staff training and development.” Friday marked the official opening of the company’s “temporary casino” on the island of Saipan in the Pacific ocean. According to previous filings, the VIP gaming operations began on November 1,
and the firm expects collaboration with junket operators to commence next month.

Macau Hotel Association expects stable rates

The vice-president of the Macau Hotel Association noted that overall hotel rates receded this year as more new hotels were developed. He said that some market participants even recorded a decline of over 10 percent. As for the coming Christmas holiday period, the vice-president expects that the hotels won’t significantly lift their rates although some of the members could increase it as much as 10 percent.