MACAU BUSINESS Look for new paths
Macau Institute of Management (MIM) President Samuel Tong Kai Chung also highlights the issue of structural unemployment. “The pandemic has greatly affected the economic structure,” he says. “The unemployed [residents] so far have been mainly unskilled staff in the gaming and tourism sector, while professionals and administrative staff have been less affected.” “As the economic structure of the city will be changed
irreversibly, not all these unemployed [residents] could find jobs in the new industries [of Macau], creating the situation of structural unemployment that requires all-round solutions,” he adds. “The government can provide more vocational training for the unemployed to look for opportunities in a new career path, who should also adjust their expectations and be ready to have a different career path with new skill sets.” Latest figures from DSEC show a total of 13,300 residents were unemployed in the first quarter of 2022, up by 14.7 per cent from a year ago and 11.8 per cent from a year earlier. The tally of unemployed residents was also the highest since the June-August period of 2003, when the gaming industry was just liberalised and the region was still embroiled in the turmoil of the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). The top three sectors, in which the greatest number of residents were jobless as of March 2022, included gaming, construction, and retail, the DSEC data indicated.
Lack of senior positions
A committee on the administrative affairs of the Legislative Assembly also held a meeting in May to discuss the unemployment situation in the city, in which the lawmakers expressed worries that small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and companies in other industries might be impacted by the shake-up in the gaming sector, leading to their closure and staff redundancy. “We have received more enquiries from residents in other
sectors besides gaming – such as, retail, hotel and food and beverage – asking for help about employment in recent times,” says lawmaker Leong Sun Iok. “Many of them were not directly sacked by their employers, but they were ‘forced to resign’ due to no-paid leave, deductions in salaries and others.” Acknowledging the authorities have organised more job fairs and job matching sessions for the unemployed, the legislator from the Macau Federation of Trade Unions, the city’s largest labour group, pinpoints only low-tier job positions were usually available in these activities, which should also provide more senior positions. “Some residents that have got their new jobs [at the job fairs] told us that they have higher financial pressure for household expenses and home mortgage payment with [a lower] salary level for their new jobs,” he illustrates. According to the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), the authorities organised19 job matching sessions for various industries, 33 matching sessions with resort and entertainment companies, and one large-scale job fair in the first five months of this year. Since May the bureau has started to host more job matching sessions for various industries, increasing the frequency from three sessions a month to 10 sessions a month, DSAL noted, adding the industries include hotel, retail, security and cleaning. “Together with the regular online and offline employment support service, [the Bureau] has helped 3,084 local residents land a job [so far this year],” DSAL noted in a statement, including the successful employment of 639 residents in the large-scale job fair held in April.
AUGUST 2022 21
“Structural unemployment is not something that could be resolved over a short time period because it is not linked to the supply and demand in the market,”
says Prof Henry Lei of University of Macau
13,300
NO. OF UNEMPLOYED RESIDENTS AS OF MARCH 2022
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