The Statistics and Census Service released the results of Employment Survey for the fourth quarter of 2006. Principal indicators such as the labour force participation rate (66.4%), unemployment rate (3.5%) and underemployment rate (0.8%) have been published in the brief report in January. The annual unemployment rate for 2006 was 3.7%, down by 0.4 percentage point compared with 4.1% in 2005.

In the fourth quarter of 2006, total labour force was estimated at 286,000, of which 276,000 were employed and 10,000 unemployed, representing an increase of 5,100 workers in the employed population and a decrease of 600 in the unemployed population over the previous quarter.

Regarding the employed population, 53.6% were male.

In terms of industry, the openings of several large casinos inducing a larger share of the labour force to work in Recreational, cultural, gaming & other services that accounted for 21.4% of the total employed population in the fourth quarter of 2006. Meanwhile, Wholesale & retail trade; Construction; and Hotels, restaurants & similar activities took up 12.5%, 12.3% and 11.6% respectively.

By occupation, 24.4% of the employed population were Clerks (including casino dealers, floorpersons, betting service operators, etc.); 20.5% were Service & sales workers and 16.8% were Unskilled workers.

The overall median monthly employment earnings was MOP7,318. For Recreational, cultural, gaming & other services that engaged the majority of the employed population, the median earnings amounted to MOP9,844.

The median actual hours worked per week was 47.1 hours.

Within the unemployed, 89.3% were searching for a new job, while 10.7% had never worked and were searching for their first job. With regard to the educational attainment, 11.0% had lower than primary education; 27.5% had primary education; 27.9% had junior secondary education; 20.8% had senior secondary education and 12.9% had tertiary education.

For the unemployed that were searching for a new job:

Analyzed by the previous industry engaged, the majority had worked in Construction (19.6%), Manufacturing (19.0%), Hotels, restaurants & similar activities (17.2%), as well as Wholesale & retail trade (13.3%).

In terms of the previous occupation, 26.8% were Service & sales workers, whereas Unskilled workers and Clerks accounted for 18.4% and 17.3% respectively.

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