The general unemployment rate of China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) for the first quarter of 2017 was 2.0 percent and median earnings of the employed residents stood at 19,000 patacas (about 2,373 U.S. dollars), the SAR's statistics department said Thursday.
Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the general unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2017 was 2.0 percent, and the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.8 percent. Meanwhile, the underemployment rate stood at 0.5 percent. All three indicators were stable as in the previous period of December 2016 to February 2017.
DSEC said total labor force was 387,500 and the labor force participation rate stood at 71.0 percent. Total employment was 379,500 and employed residents totaled 278,100, up by 400 and 1,000 respectively from the previous period.
Number of the unemployed was 7,900, similar to that in the previous period. Fresh labor force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 9.7 percent of the total unemployed, up by 1.3 percentage points.
Total employment dropped by 5,500 quarter-to-quarter, of which the number of employed residents decreased by 300. Analyzed by industry, employment in Restaurants & Similar Activities (22,900) and Construction (35,200) decreased by 4,100 and 2,000 respectively, while that in Wholesale & Retail Trade (47,400) increased by 1,100.
Median monthly employment earnings of the employed stayed unchanged from the previous quarter at 15,000 patacas (about 1,873 dollars) in the first quarter, with those engaging in Gaming & Junket Activities and Construction earning 20,000 patacas (about 2,498 dollars) and 15,000 patacas (about 1,873 dollars) respectively. Moreover, median earnings of the employed residents stood at 19,000 patacas (about 2,373 dollars), up by 1,000 patacas (about 125 dollars) quarter-to-quarter.
