Hong Kong (CNS) -- The latest seasonal unemployment rate of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) has fallen to 3.2%, the lowest since February 1998, and the underemployment rate rose slightly to 1.8%, according to the Census and Statistics Department of the SAR government, September 20.
About 7,200 more people added to the sum of 130,000 locals, are jobless, while the total 3.63 million employed has broken the former record, after six months of continuous growth.
In September when most student workers return to campuses, the supply of laborers will descend in the next few months, said Zhang Jianzong, director at the SAR Labour and Welfare Bureau.
In general, the SAR economy has been maintaining the same situation. However, the Euro sovereign debt crisis and the depressing U.S. economy warned most employers about the grand world environment.
Since the SAR government enforced the minimum wage law, the labor office receives notifications of over 3,000 private position vacancies every weekday.
In August, more than 80,000 were recorded, growing continuously for four months. This was 1.2% more than July, and 7.2% more than the same period in 2010.
In this single month of September, the SAR labor market was expanded by 3,600 to over 3.76 million. The underemployed amounts to around 68,000, with a 2,200 increase.
A boom in the construction, storage, transportation, restaurant, and commercial service industries have contributed to the unemployment rate decrease. The construction and restaurant industries are also the main ones with more evident underemployment.
