More than seven thousand contracts were cancelled or not renewed in Macao from February to May, according to the Lusa Portuguese news agency.
From when the casinos temporarily closed in February up until May, a total of 2,141 employment permits for non-resident workers had been cancelled, said the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL).
DSAL also said that “a total of 5,064 employment permits have not been renewed”, despite the fact that the government has decided to inject MOP 38.95 billion (US$ 4.87 billion) to help the local economy recover.
According to the Public Security Police (PSP) there was a reduction of 2,103 non-resident workers in Macao between February and May.
DSAL also said to Lusa that at they had received 49 complaints involving 55 non-resident workers who had their contracts cancelled or not renewed.
Macao registered almost 40 million tourists in 2019, but this year, until May, the number of visitors was only 3.2 million, a drop of 81.1 per cent from the same period last year.
On Monday, the University of Macau forecasts pointed a fall this year between 54.5 per cent and 60 per cent in the territory’s GDP.
In recent days, there has been an increasing number of chartered flights for the repatriation of hundreds of citizens from the Philippines, Nepal and Myanmar who have had their Macao contracts cancelled or not renewed.
Macao was one of the first territories to identify cases of infection with the COVID-19, before the end of January.
Macao has had no local COVID-19 cases for more than 80 days.
