HR: Decline in HK jobless predicted
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-05-17 14:40 Hong Kong's unemployment rate likely slipped to
5.1 percent in the latest three-month period, as economic expansion continued to
create new jobs, economists said yesterday.
All six analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires said they expect the jobless
rate would decline to 5.1 percent in the February to April period. A year
earlier, the unemployment rate stood at 5.9 percent in the three months ended in
April. Hong Kong is expected to issue the latest jobs data tomorrow.
Economists said the forecast jobless rate somewhat hides the extent to which
the job market is improving, because while more workers are being employed, more
people are also looking for work. As a measure of that, economists said they
expect total employment in Hong Kong in the three months ended in April grew
from 3.42 million in the January-March period, a figure roughly equivalent to 50
percent of its population.
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