The unemployment rate for local residents was 2.8 percent for the three-month period ending January 2024, a 1.5 percent year-on-year reduction and 0.1 percent less than the period prior (October-December).
The overall unemployment rate moved by the same margins, to 2.2 percent, according to the latest figures from the Statistics and Census Service (known by its Portuguese acronym DSEC).
The figure is slightly higher than that of the corresponding period ending January 2020 – prior to the pandemic’s impact on employment. Back then, Macao’s overall unemployment rate was 1.7 percent.
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The DSEC said some 200 previously unemployed people had found work since the October-December period, lowering the number of unemployed to 8,400.
The number of underemployed people, meanwhile, increased by 500 to 5,700. Most worked within the transport and storage sector and the construction sector.
The SAR’s labour force in the latest period totalled 379,100 and the labour force participation rate was 68 percent. Compared with the previous period, fewer people were employed in the construction and retail sectors, while more were working in the gaming and hotel sectors.
