HONG KONG

Jobless Rate Declines: The colony’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from March to May was 2.9%, the government Statistics Department said. That represents a fall from the revised 3.1% jobless rate recorded from February to April, the highest rate recorded in more than five years. However, the underemployment rate rose from 1.5% from February to April, to 1.9% in the March to May period. Though enviable by the standards of most countries, the jobless rate of 3% originally reported last month prompted an emergency meeting by leaders in Hong Kong.