The number of Nepalese workers in Macao has increased steadily since the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, and the group is now the second fastest-growing population of foreign non-resident workers in the SAR after Myanmar nationals.
In June, 3,652 passport holders from Nepal were working in Macao – a 25 percent rise year-on-year. They were the fifth largest foreign non-resident worker group in the SAR, and the vast majority were employed in what the Labour Affairs Bureau terms the “real estate, renting and business activities category”.
Nirmala Thapa Magar, who heads the Nepalese Coordination Association of Macau, told TDM that integrated resorts were also an important source of employment for her compatriots – many of whom struggled to make ends meet in Nepal. The small South Asian nation’s unemployment rate was almost 13 percent in 2023, and appeared to be climbing, according to official data cited by local media.
[See more: Non-resident worker numbers in Macao have rebounded by 90 percent]
That’s well above last year’s global unemployment rate of 5.1 percent (Macao’s, meanwhile, is less than two percent). Nepal’s unemployment rate is significantly higher than the official rates of any other country supplying large numbers of workers to Macao.
Most foreign non-resident workers in Macao are Filipinos, followed by Vietnamese, Indonesians and Myanmar nationals. The bulk of each of those four groups is employed as domestic workers, which is not the case for the Nepalse.
Earlier this year, Magar said the number of Nepalese people finding work in Macao was increasing “little by little” – with many returning to the SAR after losing their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic and being forced to return back to Nepal. Their numbers still fall short of the 4,227 Nepalese workers in Macao prior to the pandemic.
The Nepalese Coordination Association of Macau celebrated its 10th anniversary on Sunday.
