Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that both the unemployment rate (1.7%) and the underemployment rate (0.4%) for October-December 2014 held stable as September-November 2014.

Total labour force increased to 405,500 and the labour force participation rate stood at 74.4%. Total employment reached 398,600, an increase of 2,400 from September-November 2014; employment in Construction went up by 2,200.

Number of the unemployed was 7,000, up slightly by 100 from September-November 2014; fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 15.2% of the total unemployed, down by 5.1 percentage points.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, the general unemployment rate (1.7%) remained unchanged as the previous quarter, while the unemployment rate of local residents (2.4%) edged up by 0.1 percentage point. Total employment increased by 6,500 quarter-to-quarter. Analysed by industry, employment in Gaming (87,000) rose by 5,500. Median monthly employment earnings of the employed (MOP14,000) and the employed residents (MOP16,000) increased by MOP1,000 and MOP400 respectively quarter-to-quarter.

For the whole year of 2014, the general unemployment rate stood at 1.7% and the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.3%, both down by 0.1 percentage point year-on-year. Median monthly employment earnings of the employed amounted to MOP13,300, up by 10.8% year-on-year. As regards household employment, average number of employed persons per household was 1.8 in 2014, same as that in 2013; the median monthly employment earnings per household increased by 12.5% year-on-year to MOP27,000.