Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for October-December 2017 held stable as in the previous period (September-November 2017), at 1.9%; the underemployment rate was 0.3%, down by 0.1 percentage point.
Total labour force was 383,000 and the labour force participation rate stood at 69.9%. Total employment was 375,900 and employed residents totalled 276,400, down by 1,600 and 2,100 respectively from the previous period. Number of the unemployed was 7,100, a decrease of 300; fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 12.6% of the total unemployed, down by 2.2 percentage points.
In the fourth quarter of 2017, the general unemployment rate (1.9%) and the unemployment rate of local residents (2.5%) decreased by 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively from the previous quarter. Total employment decreased by 5,300 quarter-to-quarter. Analysed by industry, employment in Construction (28,600) dropped by 3,700 while that in Transport, Storage & Communications (21,600) rose by 2,400. Median monthly employment earnings of the employed (MOP15,500) increased by MOP500 quarter-to-quarter, whereas those of the employed residents (MOP19,000) remained unchanged from the third quarter of 2017.
For the whole year of 2017, the general unemployment rate was 2.0%, up by 0.1 percentage point year-on-year, and the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.7%, the same as in 2016. Median monthly employment earnings of the employed (MOP15,000) stayed flat year-on-year, while those of the employed residents (MOP19,000) increased by MOP1,000. As regards household employment, average number of employed persons per household was 1.7 in 2017, the same as in 2016; the median monthly employment earnings per household went up by MOP400 year-on-year to MOP28,400.