Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the unemployment rate (1.7%) and the underemployment rate (0.4%) for December 2013-February 2014 held stable as November 2013-January 2014. Total labour force reached 382,400 and the labour force participation rate rose by 0.4 percentage points from November 2013-January 2014, at 73.4%. Total employment was 376,000, an increase of 3,900 from November 2013-January 2014. Employment in Retail Trade and the Construction sector increased by 4.5% and 2.5% respectively. Number of the unemployed decreased slightly by 100 from November 2013-January 2014 to 6,400; fresh labour force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 10.4% of the total unemployed, down by 4.2 percentage points. In comparison with December 2012-February 2013, the labour force participation rate increased by 1.4 percentage points; both the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points.
