Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate has been staying at record low during the past five months, for which the unemployment rate (1.7%) and the underemployment rate (0.4%) for March-May 2014 held stable as the previous period (February-April). Total labour force was 387,600 and the labour force participation rate stood at 73.3%. Total employment reached 381,100, was similar to that of February-April. Analysed by industry, employment in the Construction sector increased by 6.1% from the previous period, totalling 48,300. Number of the unemployed remained unchanged as February-April, at 6,400; fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 10.7% of the total unemployed, up by 3.5 percentage points. In comparison with March-May 2013, the labour force participation rate increased by 1.3 percentage points, while the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate decreased by 0.1 and 0.4 percentage points respectively.
