According to the results of the Employment Survey released by the Statistics and Census Service, the unemployment rate for October-December 2007 was held stable at 2.9%, same as that in the previous period (September-November 2007). The underemployment rate was 1.3%, up by 0.1 percentage point over the preceding period.

The employed population rose by about 2,400 over the previous period to 313,000. By industry, the number of persons working in Hotels, restaurants & similar activities continued to rise, but that in the Construction sector decreased slightly.

The unemployed population was estimated at 9,500, up by 200 compared with the previous period. Among the unemployed, about 1,300 were searching for their first job, down by 1.7 percentage points over the preceding period to take up 13.9% of the total unemployed.

Total labour force was estimated at 323,000, with a labour force participation rate of 70.5%, up by 0.2 percentage point over the preceding period.

In comparison with the same period of 2006, the unemployment rate for October-December 2007 fell by 0.6 percentage point, while the underemployment rate and the labour force participation rate went up by 0.5 and 3.6 percentage points respectively.

For the whole year of 2007, the overall labour force participation rate was 69.2% and the annual unemployment rate was 3.1%.

With regard to non-resident workers, administrative information from the Public Security Police indicated that the number of non-resident workers with working permits in Macao totalled 85,207 at the end of December 2007.

The unemployment rate of local residents (excluding non-resident workers), released for the first time by the Statistics and Census Service, was 3.6% for the whole year of 2007. Principal employment indicators of Macao residents will be released quarterly starting from the first quarter of 2008.