According to the results of the Employment Survey released by the Statistics and Census Service, the unemployment rate for October-December 2008 was 3.3%, same as the previous period (September-November 2008); the underemployment rate went up by 0.1 percentage point to 1.7%.

Total labour force was 337,000 in October-December 2008 and the labour force participation rate stood at 70.7%, among them, the number of employed (326,000) and the unemployed (11,000) were similar to those of the previous period. Among the unemployed, 17.2% were searching for their first job, down by 3.3 percentage point over the previous period.

Analysed by industry, the decrease in the number of the employed was more noticeable in the Construction Sector and Recreational, Cultural, Gaming & Other Services.

In addition, the unemployment rate of local residents (excluding non-resident workers) stood at 4.0% in October-December 2008 and the respective labour force participation rate was 64.7%.

For the whole year of 2008, the overall unemployment rate was 3.0%, down by 0.1 percentage point over 2007, while the unemployment rate of local residents held stable at 3.6%.