Macau gaming sector lost 1,200-plus full-time workers in 1H

Sep 09, 2022 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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The number of full-time workers in the Macau gaming sector went down by 1,247 people in the first half of 2022, with average earnings – excluding bonuses – also declining during the period.

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

The tally of full-time workers in the Macau gaming sector stood at 53,592 at the end of June, compared to 54,839 in December 2021, a decline of 2.3 percent.

At the end of June, there were 24,093 employed dealers in Macau, representing a decline of 1.3 percent compared to December 2021.

The statistics service said the “demand for manpower in the gaming sector remained relatively low” during the second quarter of 2022, due to the “lingering impacts” of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Casinos in Macau continued to operate in the first half of 2022 in a low-revenue environment amid Covid-19 alerts and outbreaks either in Macau or mainland China. Since the onset of the pandemic, mainland China has been the only place to have a largely-quarantine free travel arrangement with Macau.

A community outbreak of Covid-19 in Macau, which started on June 18 and took more than a month for the authorities to bring under control, saw a 12-day shutdown in July of the city’s casinos as a precaution.

According to the latest staff and wages survey for the gaming sector, the average monthly wage of full-timers was MOP23,270 (US$2,909) in June, versus MOP23,700 in December last year.

Average earnings of dealers dropped by 3.2 percent during the period, to MOP19,370.

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

There were only 19 vacancies in the gaming sector at the end of the second quarter, a decline compared with 59 vacancies in December last year.

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