4Q decline in Macau gaming workforce with few vacancies

Mar 06, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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The number of full-time workers in the Macau gaming sector declined to 52,174 as of the fourth quarter in 2022, down 4.9 percent year-on-year, with average earnings – excluding bonuses – showing little year-on-year change.

That is according to the “Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages” for the industry, published on Monday by the city’s Statistics and Census Service. The survey is issued twice a year.

The number of full-time industry employees in the three months to December 31 was down by 1,418 compared to June-end last year.

Macau had 23,721 employed table games dealers as of the fourth quarter, a decline of 2.8 percent year-on-year.

Casinos in Macau had operated in a low-revenue environment for most of 2022 amid Covid-19 alerts and outbreaks either in Macau or in mainland China. The city had only started in late December to gradually drop Covid-19 associated travel restrictions, following China’s lifting of the ‘zero-Covid’ policy applicable across the country.

According to the latest staff and wages survey for the gaming sector, the average monthly wage of full-timers was MOP23,680 (US$2,936) in December, only 0.1 percent down on the same month a year earlier.

Average monthly earnings of dealers dropped by 1.1 percent year-on-year, to MOP19,800 as of December.

The quarterly survey does not include people working either for VIP gambling junket promoters or for junket associates.

There were only 13 vacancies in the gaming sector in the fourth quarter, a decline compared with 58 vacancies in the prior-year quarter.

The employee recruitment rate of the gaming sector in the fourth quarter stood at 0.2 percent, which remained unchanged year-on-year. These data suggested that the demand for manpower in Macau’s gaming sector “remained relatively low”, during the reporting period, said the statistics service in remarks included in the survey.

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