MACAO, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Macao's general unemployment rate from June to August was 2.5 percent, down slightly by 0.1 percentage points from the May-July period, the special administrative region's statistics department said on Friday.

The latest report from Macao's Statistics and Census Service said the unemployment rate of local residents was 3.1 percent, down by 0.2 percentage points from the May-July period.

The underemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 1.8 percent, while the labor force participation rate was 67.9 percent.

The labor force living in Macao totaled 375,300 people from June to August. Total employment was 366,000 and the number of employed residents totaled 285,100, up by 3,000 and 2,200 respectively from the previous period.

The number of unemployed dropped by 500 from the previous period to 9,300.

Meanwhile, the proportion of people seeking first job increased by 4.1 percentage points to 12.7 percent of the total unemployed.

The number of underemployed rose by 300 from the previous period to 6,700.