Asia And Australia February 2007

• Japan’s November unemployment rate fell 0.1 percent from October to 4.0 percent, a decline of 0.4 percent from December 2005.
  
  
• Hong Kong’s December jobless rate was also unchanged at 4.4 percent and dropped 0.8 percent from the previous year.
  
  
• Australia’s December unemployment rate was 4.6 percent, unchanged from the month before, and 0.6-percent lower than December 2005.

• The United Arab Emirates’ first parliamentary elections in late December resulted in the first woman member of the Federal National Council (FNC), a body of the federal government. Although 65 FNC candidates were women, Amal Abdullah Al-Qubaisi’s victory is a major accomplishment for the region. Kuwait and Bahrain’s elections in 2006 did not produce a nationally elected woman, although one female won by default in Bahrain.