Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate for August-October 2013 held stable at 1.9% in comparison with July-September; the underemployment rate declined further to 0.4%, down by 0.2 percentage points. Total labour force was 374,000 and the labour force participation rate increased by 0.1 percentage point from July-September, at 73.2%. Total employment reached 367,000, an increase of 2,400 from July-September. Employment in the Construction sector and Retail increased by 4.9% and 4.0% respectively. Number of the unemployed was similar to the previous period, at 6,900; fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 13.0% of the total unemployed, down by 2.0 percentage points. In comparison with August-October 2012, the labour force participation rate increased by 0.9 percentage points; the unemployment rate stayed unchanged, while the underemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points.
