In Macau, available jobs for full-time gaming employees are down, according to data just published by the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC).
As reported in Macau Business, of 56 recent open positions, 30 were for clerk positions, with only seven for director or management positions, and there were no dealer openings. Job openings are double what they were this time last year, but “pale in comparison” with the 904 vacancies available in the second quarter of 2019, in pre-pandemic times.
The DSEC said demand for labor in the gaming sector at the end of June remained “relatively low,” and all six gaming concessionaires have asked employees to take unpaid leave to cut manpower costs.
And while average earnings excluding bonuses were up 2.1 percent year-on-year, with dealers seeing a spike of 3.5 percent, directors and managers saw their earnings drop 10 percent to 11 percent. Non-resident managers saw a 7 percent rise in average earnings, however.
An unidentified “academic” told the Macau Daily Times that the city’s chief industry is undergoing a “structural transformation” due to tighter controls on cross-border gambling and increased supervision over funds. Casinos are also seeing a shift from junkets to the main casino floor as their primary source of income. Junkets are likely to see greater pressure on their operations and mass layoffs may be the outcome.
Operators, while expressing their confidence in the city’s resilience, are reducing budgets and lowering costs, especially in non-critical areas such as advertising, administration and the hiring of non-resident workers. The academic said retaining a local workforce will be critical for operators who want their concessions renewed.
