Macao's unemployment rate for the period of January to March this year reached 2.7 percent, down slightly by 0.1 percentage point over the previous period of September to December last year, according to data released by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) on Wednesday.

The city's labor force totals 334,000 in January to March period, with the labor force participation rate standing at 71.5 percent, the DSEC figures indicated.

The DSEC also said that the number of the local unemployed stood at 8,900 in the period, of which fresh labor force entrants accounted for 6.5 percent, increasing by 1.4 percentage points over the previous period.

In comparison with the same period of 2010, the labor force participation rate from January to March this year increased by 0.4 percentage points, while the unemployment rate and underemployment rate decreased by 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, according to the DSEC.