Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that both the unemployment rate (1.9%) and the underemployment rate (0.5%) for August-October 2015 remained stable as in July-September. Total labour force was 402,000 and the labour force participation rate stood at 73.2%. Total employment decreased by 400 from July-September, at 394,500. Analysed by industry, employment in Construction (51,900) dropped by 1,000, while that in Hotels, Restaurants & Similar Activities (55,600) rose by 800. Number of the unemployed was 7,500, down by 100 from July-September; fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 11.9% of the total unemployed, down by 2.7 percentage points. In comparison with August-October 2014, the labour force participation rate decreased by 1.0 percentage point, while both the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points.
