MACAO -- The general unemployment rate for August-October this year in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) went down to 1.9 percent compared with that of the previous period (July-September 2017), according to statistics released by the SAR government on Monday.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) also indicated that the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.6 percent; meanwhile, the underemployment rate was 0.5 percent.

All the three indicators dropped by 0.1 percentage point from the previous period.

The total labor force was 387,200 and the labor force participation rate stood at 70.8 percent. Total employment was 379,800 and employed residents totalled 279,900, down by 1,400 and 1,300 respectively from the previous period.

Analyzed by industry, employment in gaming and junket activities registered an increase, while that in hotels, restaurants and similar activities, wholesale and retail showed decreases, the DSEC said.

The number of the unemployed was 7,400, down by 300 from the previous period.

Fresh labor force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 14.8 percent of the total unemployed, the same proportion as in the previous period.

In comparison with August-October last year, the unemployment rate stayed unchanged, while the labor force participation rate and the underemployment rate dropped by 1.5 and 0.2 percentage point respectively.