Hong Kong’s jobless rate edges up by 0.1 percentage point to 3.9% over past 3 months

Hong Kong’s jobless rate edged up by 0.1 percentage point over the past three months to 3.9 per cent after holding steady in the period between August and October last year, with unemployment rising in the insurance, construction and finance sectors.But labour authorities remained optimistic, saying the growing economy would support the job market going forward.Latest provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Friday showed the unemployment rate for the November-January period rose by 0.1 percentage point compared with the October-December period.It was back to the level of the period between July and September last year, when a 3.9 per cent jobless rate was reported.The city’s jobless rate had held at 3.8 per cent in the August-October period last year.The underemployment rate stood unchanged at 1.7 per cent.Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han was sanguine about the jobless rate, saying it was “broadly on a par” with the level in the preceding three-month period.