Macao's unemployment rate, currently standing at 3.4 percent, will remain unchanged until the end of this year, the Macao Daily Times quoted the Special Administrative Region's (SAR) Labor Affairs Bureau Director Shuen Ka Hung as saying on Tuesday.

The SAR government policies regarding restrictions on the import of non-resident workers safeguarded the jobs of local workers, the daily quoted Shuen as saying.

Macao's unemployment rate for the whole of 2008 stood at 3 percent, down by 0.1 percentage point from 2007, according to the figures released Tuesday by the city's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). At the end of 2008, local labor force totaled 337,000, with the labor force participation rate standing at 70.7 percent.

Shuen also mentioned the importance of "knowledge-recycling" for unskilled workers and ensured that the government will provide a series of training courses for unemployed residents in the near future, such as languages and computer skills, according to the daily.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2009)