According to the results of the Employment Survey released by the Statistics and Census Service, unemployment rate for January - March 2005 was held stable at 4.1% compared with December 2004 - February 2005, but decreased by 1.4 percentage points over the same period of 2004. The underemployment rate was 1.1%, down 0.1 and 1.2 percentage points over December 2004 - February 2005 and the same period of 2004 respectively.

The number of the unemployed searching for the first job was about 900, or 8.8% of the total unemployed. This represented a decrease of 1.5 percentage points over December 2004 - February 2005.

Compared with December 2004 - February 2005, unemployment situation continued to improve in Wholesale & retail trade and Restaurants & similar activities, while it worsened in Real estate, renting & business activities and Construction.

Total labour force was estimated at 240 000 in January - March 2005; the employed and the unemployed populations were 230 000 and 9 900 respectively.

Labour force participation rate was 62.5%, up 0.1 and 0.9 percentage point over December 2004 - February 2005 and the same period of 2004 respectively.

According to the administrative information provided by Public Security Police, number of non-resident workers with working permits totalled 28 648 at the end of March 2005, an increase of 3.3% over December 2004. Please refer to the attached table for detailed information on non-resident workers by industry.