Macau’s gaming industry directly takes on 20.8 percent of the city’s employed population, show figures released by the government on Monday.
Data from the Statistics and Census Service show that the gaming industry employed a total of 81,500 people during the third quarter of 2014. The figure is triple the number of civil servants in Macau.
Gaming is the city’s largest direct employer, with construction placed a distant second, employing 56,000 workers during the three months ended September 30. A significant share of those construction jobs were however connected to the gaming industry, as all the city’s six casino operators are currently developing new mega-resorts in Cotai, the city’s answer to the Las Vegas Strip.
Gaming is also indirectly responsible for thousands of jobs in Macau’s retail, hospitality and food and beverage industries, which round up the city’s top-five of the sectors employing the most people.
Macau’s employed population was 392,100 in the three months ended September 30. The unemployment rate stood at just 1.7 percent, an all-time low.
The Statistics and Census Service data also hint that the gaming sector pays better than most industries in Macau. Median monthly employment earnings of those engaged in gaming amounted to MOP17,000 (US$2,128) during the third quarter, 31 percent above the market-wide median of MOP13,000.
Some Macau gaming labour groups are however not satisfied with the wage levels in the sector. They have organised several worker protests since July on issues linked to pay and working conditions in the Macau casino industry.
