Macao's unemployment rate continues to drop in February-April

MACAO, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Macao's general unemployment rate from February to April decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 2.8 percent from the January-March period, the special administrative region's statistics department said on Thursday.

The latest report from Macao's Statistics and Census Service said the unemployment rate for local residents was 3.6 percent for the February-April period, down 0.3 percentage points from the January-March period.

The underemployment rate edged down by 0.1 percentage point to 2.1 percent, while the labor force participation rate was 67.8 percent.

The labor force living in Macao totaled 371,200 people from February to April. Total employment was 360,700 and the number of employed residents totalled 282,200, up by 1,400 and 1,000 respectively from the previous period.

The number of unemployed dropped by 1,000 from the previous period to 10,500.

Meanwhile, the proportion of people seeking their first job decreased by 2.9 percentage points to 3.9 percent of the total unemployed.

The number of underemployed went down by 100 from the previous period to 7,900.