Macao's annual unemployment rate in 2007 stood at 3.1 percent, down by 0.6 percentage points compared with 2006, according to official statistics released by the Macao special administrative region (SAR) government on Monday.

Statistics released by the local government's Statistics and Census Service (SCS) indicated that for the whole year of 2007, the overall labor force participation rate was 69.2 percent and the unemployment rate of local residents (excluding non-resident workers ) was 3.6 percent,

The employed population rose to 313,000 during the period from October to December last year, and by industry, the number of persons working in hotels, restaurants and relevant sectors continued to rise, while the construction sector decreased slightly, according to the result of a SCS survey.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2008)