Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for July-September 2011 held stable at 2.6%, same as the previous period (June-August 2011); the underemployment rate was 1.0%, up slightly by 0.1 percentage point. Total labour force was 344,000 in July-September 2011 and the labour force participation rate stood at 72.5%, with the employed population increasing by about 300 over the previous period to 335,000. Analyzed by industry, employment of the Transport, Storage & Communications Sector saw increase, while that of Retail Trade and the Gaming Sector registered decrease. Number of the unemployed decreased slightly by 100 from the previous period to 8,900, with 16.6% being fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job, up by 1.3 percentage points over the previous period. In comparison with July-September 2010, the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate dropped by 0.3 and 0.6 percentage point respectively; meanwhile, the labour force participation rate rose by 0.7 percentage point. In the third quarter of 2011, the unemployment rate of local residents held stable as the previous quarter, at 3.3%; the labour force participation rate of local residents rose by 1.0 percentage point to 67.8%.
