Macao's unemployment rate dipped to a new low or 4.5 percent, the lowest tag since 1997, according to the latest statistics released by the Macao Statistics and Census Bureau.

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 percent in July, falling below 5 percent since 1997 for the first time.

The bureau's statistics suggested that Macao's working population totaled 233,600 in the period between August and October including 10,600 jobless residents. Some 14 percent of the unemployed were looking for their first jobs.

Macao's unemployment rate stood at 6.3 percent in 2001, when the economy was gradually recovering from a long period of doldrums. The liberalization of the gaming sector, which took effects this year, has created thousands of new jobs in the gaming city.

Editor: Olivia