Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the general unemployment rate for July-September 2019 held steady from the previous period (June-August 2019), at 1.8%; the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.5%, up slightly by 0.1 percentage point. Meanwhile, the underemployment rate remained unchanged at 0.4%.
Total labour force was 394,400 and the labour force participation rate was 70.2% in July-September 2019. Total employment was 387,100 and number of employed residents totalled 281,100, down by 200 and 500 respectively from the previous period. Meanwhile, number of the unemployed rose by 200 to 7,300. With fresh graduates entering the labour market, the proportion of new labour market entrants seeking their first job increased by 1.7 percentage points to 21.0% of the total unemployed.
In the third quarter of 2019, the general unemployment rate (1.8%) and the unemployment rate of local residents (2.5%) increased by 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively from the previous quarter. Total employment decreased by 100 quarter-to-quarter, of which number of employed residents went down by 1,200. Analysed by industry, employment in Gaming & Junket Activities (84,900) dropped by 2,200 quarter-to-quarter, while that in the Wholesale & Retail Trade (41,800) rose by 2,000.
Median monthly employment earnings of the employed in the third quarter increased by MOP700 quarter-to-quarter to MOP17,000; median earnings of those engaging in Gaming & Junket Activities and the Construction sector stood at MOP20,000 and MOP16,000 respectively. Moreover, median earnings of the employed residents stayed the same as in the previous quarter, at MOP20,000.