Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that favourable situation of the job market prevailed. The unemployment rate for August-October 2012 declined further to 1.9%, down by 0.1 percentage point from the previous period (July-September); the underemployment rate held stable at 0.8%.

In August-October 2012, total labour force was 353,300 and the labour force participation rate stood at 72.3%. Total employment reached 346,600, an increase of 2,400 over the previous period. Analysed by industry, notable increase was observed in the employment in Retail Trade and Construction.

Number of the unemployed decreased by 300 from the previous period to 6,700, with 19.3% being fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job, down by 1.5 percentage points.

In comparison with August-October 2011, the labour force participation rate, the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate decreased by 1.0, 0.6 and 0.2 percentage point respectively.