Hong Kong - Hong Kong's unemployment rate has risen to 3.8 per cent - the highest level in more than a year - as the global economic slump takes its toll, the government announced Thursday.

There are now 136,000 people out of work in the wealthy city of 6.9 million which has a workforce of more than three million, according to figures released for the period from September to November.

The jobless figure was 0.3 per cent higher than in the time from August to October.

Most redundancies in the September to November quarter were in the retail, construction, manufacturing and import and export sectors, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung said.

Announcing the figures, Cheung said he expected to see more people made redundant in the coming months as the global economic slump continues to have an impact on the former British colony.

Cheung said: "The deteriorating external economic environment will inevitably dampen the local employment market."

Hong Kong officially went into recession in November. Property prices have fallen sharply and the Hang Seng Index has lost around 50 per cent of its value since the beginning of 2008.

Unemployment in Hong Kong peaked at almost 8 per cent in the aftermath of the 2003 SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, crisis but then fell steadily from mid
2003 onwards. (dpa)