Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for August-October 2010 was 2.9% and the underemployment rate was 1.6%, both remained unchanged from the previous period (July-September 2010). Total labour force was 330,000 in August-October 2010 and the labour force participation rate stood at 71.7%, with the employed population increasing by about 400 over the previous period to 321,000. Analyzed by industry, employment of Retail Trade saw increase, while that of Real Estate & Business Activities registered a decrease. Number of the unemployed held stable at 9,400, with 19.9% being fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job, up by 0.9 percentage point over the previous period. In comparison with August-October 2009, the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate dropped by 0.6 and 0.3 percentage point respectively; meanwhile, the labour force participation rate stayed unchanged.
