MACAU BUSINESS By Paolo A. Azevedo By Tony Lai
No elixir S
M
There are limited short-term remedies for the current unemployment situation in the city, which has been beset by macroeconomic factors like the Covid-19 pandemic as well as structural change in the local economy
Jeju – the new Singapore
Jeju will be as big as Singapore in terms of Gross Gaming Revenue, predicts Lawrence Teo. The Chief Operations Officer and Vice President of Dream Tower, the tallest Integrated Resort under construction on the Korean destination island, explains to Macau Business why Lotte Tour decided to enter the casino business and create a landmark. All bets are on making the casino resort the crown of the tourism jewel the company has been dominating for four decades
ome news that has recently caused a storm in the local community is that a local large corporation allegedly intended to only offer MOP8,500 (US$1,062.5) a month to recruit local residents for clerical work, which is much
lower than the market price of at least MOP11,000-12,000 a month. This has immediately led to censure from labour groups and many in the society, claiming the offer was “unacceptable” and “unreasonable”. While this incident has quickly died down, it paints a bleak
picture of the current job market in the city, which has been weighed down by the continuation of negative economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic and the overhaul in the local gaming industry. Observers warn that the local unemployment rate might climb further and that the authorities and the community as a whole should be prepared. Latest figures from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) show the unemployment rate for local residents stood at 4.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2022, the highest since the first quarter of 2009 during the global financial crisis, while the overall jobless rate reached the highest level since the third quarter of 2009 at 3.5 per cent in the first three months of this year. The underemployment rate for residents – the indicator for those working less than 35 hours a week involuntarily – was 3.3 per cent in the January-March period of 2022, improving from 5.1 per cent from the previous quarter but still much higher than below 1 per cent prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. “There are worries that we are not at the worst times yet
18 OCTOBER 2017
in terms of unemployment over the recent negative news about some ‘satellite casinos’, meaning the unemployment rate for residents could rise further from 4.5 per cent “ Henry Chun Kwok Lei, associate head of Department of Finance and Business Economics at University of Macau (UM), says. “Residents who are underemployed now might lose their jobs if the situation exacerbates, and we are at the end of the school year when thousands of university graduates are looking for jobs in this climate — both factors could spike the unemployment rate.” Latest DSEC data shows the city’s gross domestic product (GDP) slipped 8.9 per cent year-on-year in real terms in the first quarter of 2022, following a rebound of 18 per cent in 2021. The gross gaming revenue, a major indicator of the city’s economic performance, also plunged 36.2 per cent year-on-year to MOP20.45 billion in the first four months of this year, after a recovery of 43.7 per cent last year.
20 AUGUST 2022
acau Business – From Lotte World, a major recreational complex [with the world’s largest indoor theme park, in Seoul] to an integrated resort with casino in Jeju. A different beast. A
natural evolution? Lawrence Teo – Business is the same. But building
a landmark. M. B. – The group [Lotte] has created other landmarks in different types of business. Why would this be different? L. T. – Yes, Lotte Group has already created
Structural unemployment
Besides the weak external demand – as travel restrictions imposed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have hampered the local tourism and gaming industry – the UM scholar says the structural change of the local economy, namely, the restructuring in the gaming segment, also plays a key role tot he “severe” unemployment situation now. He highlights the closure of VIP rooms and potential lay-offs in and shutdown of “satellite casinos”, following the arrest of junket bosses and the proposed amendments to local gaming regulations that enhance supervision since the end of last year. “Structural unemployment is not something that could be
to do the Dream Tower in Jeju. Lotte here is being just a family company; we’re a different company [Lotte Tour]. It’s not going to be [just] the tallest and the largest building in Jeju, that’s just the hardware. We say that a landmark should be the most visited destination, where tourists will go to eat, shop and maybe [visit] our observation deck. A must-visit point destination. Because of the hardware, and also the software.
M. B. – What are the main goals that you definitely downtown Seoul and Lotte Super Tower. We’re trying
resolved over a short time period because it is not linked to the supply and demand in the market,” the UM scholar stresses, for instance, former gaming workers, who have lost their jobs, might not be easy to find a new one that matches their skill sets. A survey published in late April on the latest employment
want to achieve with this Integrated Resort (IR)? L. T. – Number one EBIDTA on IR in Korea. There’s
status of former junket staff reflect what Prof. Lei points out. The poll undertaken by the Integrated Service Centre of the Macau Gaming Industry Employees Home found that 85.1 per cent of them had still not found a job in the wake of the shutdown of major local junket brands since late 2021. The poll said the top three reasons cited by the 309 interviewees – with only 23.6 per cent obtaining a bachelor’s degree or higher education qualifications – for their failures in landing a new job were: a scarcity of job openings due to the bad economic climate; a lack of diversity in their work experience; and a lack of vocational skills.
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