According to the results of the Employment Survey released by the Statistics and Census Service, the unemployment rate for June-August 2008 rose by 0.1 percentage point over the previous period (May-July 2008) to 3.0%, but dropped by 0.1 percentage point year-on-year. The underemployment rate remained unchanged from the previous period, at 1.6%, but up by 0.5 percentage point year-on-year.

Total labour force was 337,000 in June-August 2008; the labour force participation rate stood at 70.9%, up by 0.2 and 0.9 percentage point respectively from the previous period and the corresponding period of 2007.

The employed population rose by 2,600 over the previous period to 327,000, with increases in the number of persons working in the Construction sector, Real Estate & Business Activities and Domestic Help, but decreases in the Hotel Industry and Retail Trade.

With more fresh graduates and school leavers entering the labour market, the number of the unemployed rose by about 300 over the preceding period to 10,000. Among them, 19.5% (2,000) were searching for their first job, up by 6.6 percentage points over the previous period.