Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that job market situation showed continuous improvement, with the unemployment rate for October-December 2009 decreasing further by 0.2 percentage point over the previous period (September-November 2009) to 3.1%, back to the same level before the occurrence of the global financial crisis. The underemployment rate was 1.9%, same as that in the previous period. Total labour force was 322,000 in October-December 2009 and the labour force participation rate stood at 71.0%, with the employed population decreasing slightly by 500 over the previous period to 312,000. Analyzed by industry, employment of the Gaming and Manufacturing Sectors increased from the preceding period, while that of Transport, Storage & Communications Sector and Real Estate & Business Activities registered a decrease. In October-December 2009, number of the unemployed decreased by 800 over the preceding period to about 9,900, with 10.7% (1,100) being fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job, down by 2.8 percentage points from the previous period. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the unemployment rate of local residents stood at 3.7%, down noticeably by 0.9 percentage point quarter-to-quarter; meanwhile, the labour force participation rate of local residents dropped by 1.1 percentage points to 66.0%. For the whole year of 2009, the overall unemployment rate was 3.6%, up by 0.6 percentage point over 2008; the unemployment rate of local residents rose by 0.8 percentage point year-on-year to 4.4%.
