Mr Tung is facing unprecedented popular pressure

The proportion of people out of work in the former British colony reached 8.6% for the three months to June, a third of a percentage point 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.

Demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of people - the biggest in China 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.