Hong Kong's unemployment rate decreased sequentially in the February-April period, contrary to economists expectations for an increase, preliminary data released by the Census and Statistics Department showed Thursday.
The unemployment rate decreased to 3.3 percent in the February-April period from 3.4 percent in the three months ended March. Economists expected the jobless rate to rise to 3.5 percent.
The number of unemployed persons, on an unadjusted basis, moved up to around 124,700 during the three-month period from 124,100 in the preceding period. The number of underemployed persons, meanwhile, decreased by around 1,100.
At the same time, the number of employed dropped modestly to about 3,649,300 in the February-April period from 3,649,600 in the three months ended March.
"While the positive hiring sentiment still generally prevails among employers as indicated by the recent vacancy and business tendency survey results, the near-term outlook will depend on whether job creation in the corporate sector can sustain at a pace sufficiently fast enough to absorb the increase in labour supply over the summer months," Labour and Welfare secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said.
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