HONG KONG, May 16 (AP) -- Hong Kong's unemployment rate likely slipped to 5.1 percent in the latest three-month period, as economic expansion continued to create new jobs, economists said Tuesday.

All six analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires said they expect the jobless rate would decline to 5.1 percent in the February to April period on a seasonally-adjusted basis, down from the 5.2 percent for the three months ended March.

A year earlier, the unemployment rate stood at 5.9 percent in the three months ended April.

Hong Kong is expected to issue the latest jobs data on Thursday.

Economists said the forecast jobless rate somewhat hides the extent to which the job market is improving, because while more workers are being employed, more people are also looking for work.

As a measure of that, economists said they expect total employment in Hong Kong in the three months ended April grew from 3.42 million in the January-March period, a figure roughly equivalent to 50 percent of the territory's population.

"Labor market conditions remain quite positive for Hong Kong. As the economy gets better, more people are employed while more people are re-entering the job market," keeping the unemployment rate relatively stable on a month-on-month basis, said Daniel Hui, an economist at JP Morgan.