According to the results of the Employment Survey released by the Statistics and Census Service, the unemployment rate for December 2007 - February 2008 remained unchanged from November 2007 - January 2008, at 2.9%. The underemployment rate stood at 1.6%, up by 0.2 percentage point over the preceding period.

The employed population decreased by about 700 over the previous period to 313,400. By industry, the number of persons working in Construction; Wholesale & retail; and Recreational, cultural, gaming & other services dropped slightly, while that in Restaurants and Manufacturing registered an increase compared with the previous period.

The unemployed population was similar to that in the previous period, at around 9,400. Among the unemployed, about 900 were searching for their first job, down by 2.2 percentage points over the preceding period to take up 9.8% of the total unemployed.

Total labour force was estimated at 322,800; the labour force participation rate was 70.1%, down by 0.2 percentage point from the preceding period.

Compared with December 2006 - February 2007, the unemployment rate fell by 0.3 percentage point, while the underemployment rate and the labour force participation rate went up by 0.9 and 3.0 percentage points respectively.