MACAO, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The general unemployment rate in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) remained steady at 1.7 percent from March to May, as compared with that of the previous period from February to April, the SAR's statistics service said on Thursday.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the unemployment rate of local residents was 2.4 percent from March to May, up by 0.1 percentage point as compared with that of the previous period. Meanwhile, the underemployment rate was 0.4 percent, down by 0.1 percentage point.

Total labour force was 394,100 and the labour force participation rate was 70.4 percent. Total employment was 387,200 and the number of employed residents totalled 282,100, up by 1,900 and 2,000 respectively from the previous period.

Analyzed by industry, employment in the transport, storage and communications sector, as well as gaming and junket activities registered increases, while that in the construction sector decreased.

The number of unemployed was 6,900, up by 300 from the previous period. New labour market entrants seeking their first job accounted for 10.9 percent of the total unemployed, up by 0.6 percentage points.