Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for June-August 2013 held stable at 1.9% in comparison with May-July; the underemployment rate was 0.6%, down by 0.1 percentage point. Total labour force was 369,000 and the labour force participation rate stood at 72.8%. Total employment reached 362,000, up by 2,300 from May-July. Analysed by industry, employment in the Construction sector showed continued growth, up further by 3.5% over the previous period to 35,000. Number of the unemployed was 7,200, up by 200 from May-July. With a new batch of fresh graduates joining the labour market, fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job increased by 3.4 percentage points to account for 13.6% of the total unemployed. In comparison with June-August 2012, the labour force participation rate rose by 0.5 percentage points, while the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate dropped by 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively.
