Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the employment situation showed continuous improvement; the unemployment rate for October-December 2010 was 2.7%, down by 0.1 percentage point over the previous period (September-November 2010), the lowest since the Handover of Macao to China. The underemployment rate was 1.7%, same as that in the previous period. Total labour force was 331,000 in October-December 2010 and the labour force participation rate stood at 71.4%, up by 0.2 percentage point from the previous period. The employed population increased by about 2,300 over the previous period to 322,000, in which employment of the Construction Sector saw increase, while that of Restaurants & Similar Activities and the Manufacturing Sector registered a decrease. Number of the unemployed decreased by about 200 from the previous period to 8,900, with 10.5% being fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job, down by 4.1 percentage points over the previous period. In comparison with October-December 2009, the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate dropped by 0.4 and 0.2 percentage point respectively; meanwhile, the labour force participation rate rose by 0.4 percentage point. In the fourth quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate of local residents stood at 3.3%, down by 0.2 percentage point quarter-to-quarter; the labour force participation rate of local residents dropped by 0.4 percentage point to 66.9%. For the whole year of 2010, the overall unemployment rate was 2.8%, down notably by 0.8 percentage point over 2009; the unemployment rate of local residents also plunged by 0.9 percentage point year-on-year to 3.5%.
