MACAO, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The general unemployment rate in China's Macao Special Administrative Region dropped 0.1 percentage point to 1.8 percent from March to May this year, the SAR's statistics service said on Wednesday.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.5 percent from March to May, down by 0.1 percentage point as compared with that of the previous period (from February to April). Meanwhile, the underemployment rate remained unchanged at 0.5 percent.

Total labor force was 390,300 and the labor force participation rate was 70.8 percent. Total employment was 383,100 and number of employed residents totalled 282,500, up by 1,600 and 1,700 respectively from the previous period.

Analyzed by industry, employment in wholesale and retail trade and gaming and junket activities registered increased while that in transport, storage and communications decreased.

The number of the unemployed was 7,200, down by 200 from the previous period. Fresh labor force entrants searching for their first job accounted for 5.6 percent of the total unemployed, up by 0.5 percentage points.

?