Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for December 2015-February 2016 held stable at 1.9% as in the previous period (November 2015-January 2016); the underemployment rate was 0.5%, up by 0.1 percentage point. Total labour force was 397,800 and the labour force participation rate stood at 72.5%. Total employment increased slightly by 100 from November 2015-January 2016, at 390,400. Analysed by industry, employment in Construction registered decrease, while that in Gaming & Junket Activities saw increase. Number of the unemployed was 7,400, down by 300 from November 2015-January 2016; fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 6.9% of the total unemployed, down by 3.0 percentage points. In comparison with December 2014-February 2015, the labour force participation rate decreased by 1.6 percentage points, while the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate increased by 0.2 and 0.1 percentage points respectively.
