Hong Kong's unemployment remained unchanged in August, but was below economists' expectations, data released by the Census and Statistics Department showed Tuesday.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained sequentially unchanged at 3.2 percent during the June-August period, while economists had forecast the figure to rise to 3.3 percent.
The underemployment rate increased to 1.7 percent from 1.5 percent in the preceding three-month period.
There were about 131,600 unemployed persons during the three months ended August, up by around 3,100 compared to the previous period. Meanwhile, the number of employed decreased by around 4,400 to around 3.671 million.
"The employment situation hinges on the overall economic performance and in particular the pace of job creation in the corporate sector," Labour and Welfare secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said.
"While the number of job vacancies is still at a relatively high level, some employers have adopted a more cautious attitude towards staff hiring."
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