Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for July-September 2009 was 3.7%, down by 0.1 percentage point over the previous period (June-August); the underemployment rate went up by 0.1 percentage point to 2.0%. Total labour force was 328,000 in July-September 2009, with the employed population decreasing by 3,000 from the previous period to 316,000. Analyzed by industry, employment of Real Estate & Business Activities and Hotels, Restaurants & Similar Activities increased from the preceding period, while that of Gaming registered a decrease. In July-September 2009, number of the unemployed dropped slightly by 400 over the preceding period to 12,000, with 17.6% (2,200) being fresh labour force entrants searching for the first job, up by 3.8 percentage points from June-August 2009. In comparison with July-September 2008, the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate rose by 0.6 and 0.5 percentage point respectively. Meanwhile, the labour force participation rate (72.0%) fell by 0.6 percentage point from the previous period and by 0.9 percentage point year-on-year. In the third quarter of 2009, the unemployment rate of local residents stood at 4.6%, up by 0.1 percentage point over the second quarter of 2009; the labour force participation rate of local residents dropped by 0.2 percentage point to 67.1%.
