MACAO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Macao's general unemployment rate for the period from October to December decreased by 0.2 percentage point to 3.5 percent from the September-November period, the special administrative region (SAR)'s statistics department said on Friday.
The latest report from Macao's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) said that the unemployment rate for local residents was 4.5 percent for the October-December period, down 0.2 percentage point from the September-November period.
The underemployment rate dropped by 0.4 percentage point to 3.9 percent, while the labor force participation rate was 68.5 percent, the report added.
The labor force living in Macao totaled 373,400 people for the period from October to December this year. Total employment was 360,200 and the number of employed residents totaled 281,100, down by 1,700 and 900 respectively from the previous period.
The number of unemployed dropped by 800 from the previous period to 13,200.
Meanwhile, the proportion of people seeking their first job increased by 0.6 percentage point to 12.0 percent of the total unemployed.
The number of the underemployed dropped by 1,800 from the previous period to 14,400.
The general unemployment rate and the unemployment rate of local residents in the fourth quarter of 2022 dropped by 0.5 and 0.7 percentage point from the previous quarter to 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent respectively. Total employment decreased by 2,800 quarter-to-quarter.
For the whole year of 2022, the general unemployment rate was 3.7 percent and the unemployment rate of local residents stood at 4.8 percent, up by 0.8 and 0.9 percentage point respectively year on year. ■
