Hong Kong jobless rate dips to 3.8% as business and consumer confidence improve

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate dipped to 3.8 per cent over the past three months, the first decrease since mid-2023, with authorities attributing the decline to a steadfast improvement in business sentiment and a gradual recovery of consumer confidence.

Preliminary data released by the Census and Statistics Department on Tuesday showed that the jobless rate for the August to October period decreased by 0.1 percentage point compared with the July to September figure.

This marked the first drop in the unemployment rate in 27 months, when it fell 0.2 percentage points between the April–June and May–July periods of 2023.

But the city’s jobless rate still stood at the second-highest point since the period between July and September 2022, when it was 4 per cent.

Hong Kong’s jobless rate rose to 3.9 per cent between July and September, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the previous three-month period.

Unemployment rates decreased across several major industries, including the retail, accommodation and food services, professional and business services, foundation and superstructure and the financing sector.

In the construction sector, unemployment stood at 7 per cent, the highest across industries, decreasing by 0.2 percentage points from the previous three-month period.