Hong Kong's jobless rate sticks at 6.4pc

Hong Kong's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 6.4 percent for the period from August to October 2020, unchanged from the previous July-September period.

The reading was better than the 6.6 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

The underemployment rate also remained unchanged at 3.8 percent over the two periods, official data showed.

Total employment jumped by around 2,900 to 3,627,700 while the labor force in the same period was almost unchanged at 3.88 million, according to the data of the Census and Statistics Department.

The number of unemployed, not seasonally adjusted, decreased by around 2,000 to 257,800 and number of underemployed persons also decreased by around 1,100 to 148,000.

Joblessness in transportation rose to 6.2 percent, the highest in almost 17 years after Cathay Pacific Airways said in October it would slash more than 5,000 jobs and close a regional carrier in a massive restructuring stemming from the coronavirus outbreak.

The unemployment rate in the hard-hit retail, accommodation, and food services sectors declined by 0.5 percentage points to 11.2 percent.