Hong Kong Jobless Rate Hits Highest Level Since June Amid Covid
- Unemployment rate rises to 5% for the three months ended March
- Easing outbreak should support employment outlook: Government
Commuters in the Central district of Hong Kong.
Photographer: Paul Yeung/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Hong Kong’s unemployment rate surged to 5% for the three months ended March, the highest level in nine months as the economy was battered by a brutal wave of Covid infections and the strict measures to contain them.
The jobless rate was the worst since a 5.4% reading in June 2021, and was more than the 4.8% expected in a Bloomberg poll of economists. “Almost all major economic sectors” recorded a rise in the unemployment rate, as well as the underemployment rate, which hit 3.1% in the January-March period, the Census and Statistics Department said in a report Thursday containing the government data.