According to the results of the Employment Survey released by the Statistics and Census Service, the unemployment rate for November 2007 - January 2008 remained unchanged from October-December 2007, at 2.9%. The underemployment rate stood at 1.4%, up by 0.1 percentage point over the preceding period.

The employed population rose by about 800 over the previous period to 314,000, with increase in the number of persons working in Recreational, cultural, gaming & other services; and Transport, storage & communications, while that in Hotels, restaurants & similar activities decreased.

The unemployed population was held stable at around 9,500 from the previous period. Among the unemployed, 1,100 were searching for their first job, down by 1.9 percentage points over the preceding period to take up 12.0% of the total unemployed.

Total labour force was estimated at 324,000, with the labour force participation rate of 70.3%, down by 0.2 percentage point from the preceding period.

The unemployment rate for November 2007 - January 2008 fell by 0.5 percentage point compared with the same period a year ago, while the underemployment rate and the labour force participation rate went up by 0.6 and 3.3 percentage points respectively.