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Sep 17, 2009, 10:17 GMT

Hong Kong's jobless rate holds steady for third month running

Hong Kong - Hong Kong's jobless rate has remained steady at 5.4 per cent for the third consecutive month, defying fears of a grim autumn of rising unemployment, government figures showed Thursday. Just under 217,000 people were unemployed in the city of 7 million in the June-to-August quarter, the same percentage of the working population as in the May-to-July and April-to-June quarters. Hong Kong releases unemployment figures once a month, based each time upon the statistics covering the preceding three months. The steadying of unemployment came despite fears the jobless total would rise sharply to as much as 7 per cent in the autumn because of the added burden of school and university graduates. Announcing the figures, Labour Secretary Matthew Cheung said the job market was stabilizing but warned: 'As the pace of business growth remains uncertain, employers are generally cautious in hiring new hands at this point in time. 'Coupled with the relatively slow absorption of newcomers, including fresh graduates and school leavers into the labour market this year, the unemployment rate is expected to remain high in the near term.' Hong Kong emerged from a year-long recession in August and its benchmark Hang Seng Index on Thursday climbed for a second-consecutive day to its highest close in more than a year at 21,768.

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