Employment remained stable for the quarter ending January with the unemployment and underemployment rates at 7.2% and 3.1% respectively, the same as the October-December period.

Secretary for Economic Development & Labour Stephen Ip said there will continue to be fluctuations in the number of unemployed, adding that the Government will do its best to help create jobs.

He said there are still uncertainties over a possible war in Iraq.

"Certainly these sort of uncertainties will not help to ease the unemployment situation," he said.

During the past three months, decreases in the unemployment rate were observed in the retail, import/export trades, business services, communications, hotels, sanitary services and recreational services sectors. Increases were seen in restaurant, construction and transport sectors.

As to the underemployment rate, a decrease was observed in the construction sector, offsetting the increases seen in the sanitary services and recreational services sectors.

The Government said that while the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate showed no change in November-January over October-December, there was a decrease in the total number of unemployed people, along with an increase in total employment between the two periods.

This was mainly attributable to an increase in seasonal employment, in line with more intensive business just before the Lunar New Year Festival.