Although Macao’s tourism industry embarked on a rapid post-pandemic recovery last year, there were slightly fewer full-time employees in the territory’s gaming sector at the end of the fourth quarter in comparison to the same period in 2022, when Covid-19 restrictions were still in place.
Data from the Statistics and Census Service (known by its Portuguese initials DSEC) shows that there were 51,771 full-time employees in the gaming sector at the end of 2023’s fourth quarter, a decrease of 403 staff year-on-year. Dealers totalled 23,359, down by 362.
The average monthly earnings (excluding irregular remuneration) of full-time employees in the sector in December stood at 25,290 patacas, up by 6.8 percent year-on-year. The average earnings of dealers stood at 20,870 patacas a month, a rise of 5.4 percent.
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The DSEC notes that these figures were “due mainly to the low base of comparison caused by a relatively large number of employees being placed on unpaid leave in the same month of 2022.”
At the same time, the number of job vacancies in the sector rose by 387 year-on-year to 400 at the end of the fourth quarter. Nearly 85 percent of the vacancies required a senior secondary education or lower, while almost 84 percent specified a command of English. Nearly all advertised vacancies required knowledge of Mandarin.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, the numbers of new recruits, and employees leaving their jobs, totalled 1,035 and 843 respectively.
