Macao's unemployment rate for the period of March to May 2009 reached 3.5 percent, slightly decreasing by 0.3 percentage points from the February-April period, according to the figures released on Monday by Macao's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).

Compared with the same period of last year, the unemployment rate for March to May went up by 0.6 percentage points, the DSEC indicated. Total labor force stood at 333,000 in the period, with an employed population of 321,000 and the number of the unemployed decreasing by 1,100 to about 12,000.

Among the unemployed, 9.9 percent were fresh labor force entrants searching for their first job, up by 0.6 percentage points over the previous period of February to April, according to the DSEC.

Labor force participation rate for the period remained stable at 72.6 percent, only falling by 0.2 percentage point year-on-year. The underemployment rate was 1.7 percent, up by 0.1 percentage point year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the unemployment situation has shown improvement in all other sectors, except for local Manufacturing and Transport, storage and communications, the DSEC said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2009)