The pressure on Hong Kong's government increased on Thursday as unemployment levels rose to unheard-of highs.
The proportion of people out of work in the former British colony reached 8.6% for the three months to June, 0.3% up on the previous record set only a month earlier.

The news, in line with economists' dismal forecasts, may make life even more difficult for beleaguered chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, already struggling against unprecedented popular outrage.

Million-strong demonstrations - the biggest since the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy marches of 1989 - have forced Mr Tung to ditch both a controversial security law and his security chief Regina Ip.

And a scandal over luxury car taxes has claimed the scalp of the finance minister, Antony Leung.

Mr Leung's departure had a modest effect on Hong Kong stock prices, with the main Hang Seng index ending the day down 1.1%.

Sars damage

The jobless figures are a touchstone for popular dissatisfaction with the administration of Mr Tung.

Hand-picked by Beijing to run the "Special Administrative Region" under a banner of "one country, two systems" when Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997, Mr Tung has always been seen as a placeman.

But his apparent willingness to dance to Beijing's tune has only really become a concern for many Hong Kong residents since the Sars respiratory epidemic hit the territory.

Beijing's long-sustained denial that the mainland had a problem went unchallenged by Mr Tung, despite the damage the epidemic did to the territory's economy.

The sharp rise in unemployment reflects the ongoing shock, boosted by the additional pressure of a flood of new graduates looking for work.