Hong Kong's jobless rate falls

Hong Kong's unemployment rate fell to 3.3% in the February to April quarter, a 0.1-percentage-point decrease from the January to March quarter, government statistics showed Friday. The number of unemployed stands at 124,700. Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, secretary for labour and welfare, said the decrease was led by job creation in the finance and cleaning sectors. However, he warned that it was not known whether job growth could be sustained at a pace sufficient to absorb the 100,000 students expected to leave school and university this summer. The jobless rate had risen slightly after touching 3.2% in September - the lowest unemployment rate seen for nearly 13 years. Unemployment is measured quarterly to counterbalance seasonal spikes and troughs in the unemployment rate, but updated on a monthly basis.