Photo: Gonçalo Lobo Pinheiro

Over 23,000 gaming workers found underemployed

Macau’s gaming and junket sectors bid farewell to 3,200 employees last quarter, while its hospitality industry lost 3,300 workers in the same period.

According to a quarterly report by the Statistics and Census Service on the city’s workforce, only 66,400 residents worked in a field relevant to casino activity, or about 18.3 per cent of the total; and 23,000 were in the line of hospitality, representing some 12 per cent of the employed.

Both sectors saw a fall of 0.8 percentage points compared to a quarter earlier, the document said.

Casino workers make up 37.2 per cent of underemployed workers

The number of underemployed locals surged in the third quarter by 46,800 to 62,500 from a quarter earlier, with 37.2 per cent of them in the gaming sector, or about 23,250 workers.

Nearly 20 per cent of the total were engaged in the hotel sector.

Close to 28 per cent of the total underemployed community were aged 25 to 34.

The statisticians put the underemployment number down to the fact that many of the workers had been placed on furlough or partially paid leave, such workers accounted for almost 82 per cent of the total underemployed.

Median monthly employment earnings stand at MOP15,000

Full-time employees, namely those who worked 35 hours or more per week, fell by 46,300 quarter-to-quarter to 266,800, with their median monthly employment earnings down by MOP1,200 to MOP15,000. In comparison, it was MOP20,000 (US$2585.9) for people with local IDs.

For those who earned MOP20,000 to MOP24,999, the number decreased by 16,400 from a quarter earlier; while those who made between MOP16,000 and  MOP19,999 fell by 11,100.

However, full-time workers who earned MOP40,000 or more went up by 4,800. The report explained that some employees in certain sectors had received double pay or bonuses.

Without the extra pay taken into account, the number of full-time employees earning MOP40,000 or more went down by 1,100.