4,300 local graduates to face greater difficulty in job seeking

The city will see around 4,300 fresh graduates become new entrants to the job market, according to the survey conducted by the General Association of Chinese Students of Macau (AECM).
Compared to new graduates in previous years, this year’s cohort will have to endure a difficult global employment environment, which has been significantly affected by economic fallout caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The AECM research suggests that the average monthly salary employers can offer a fresh graduate is around MOP 10,000.
During the pre-pandemic era, it took less than one month for recent graduates to land a job. However, the job-seeking period has increased to between three and six months for new job-seekers this year.
Not only are fresh graduates encountering additional hardship in finding a job, they are also finding it more difficult to find jobs that match their educational backgrounds, Leong Wai Hin, chairman of the AECM, told TDM in a private interview.
Local businesses are themselves suffering due to the pandemic and are consequently offering fewer positions than before, he explained.
Previous graduates used to bide their time until a good job opportunity came up. However, the current situation will require graduates to be more open-minded and willing to explore positions across various industries.
According to the forecast by the Macau Human Resources Association, the local job market is unlikely to stabilize until 2023. The association advised fresh graduates to not be too picky with their first job.
Across all industries, the job demand from Macau’s meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) sector is expected to be the most pronounced, given a huge number of MICE events to be held in Macau. This is expected to generate many jobs for casual workers, the association stated.
Macau will see over 100 events to be held in the second half of this year, according to separate remarks made by president of the Macao Association of Convention, Exhibition & Tourism Sectors, Alan Ho.
Apart from MICE, the food and beverage and retail sectors are also anticipated to recover relatively rapidly, a representative from the association told TDM.
The association suggests that local graduates proactively sign up for internship programs initiated by the government, as these schemes can provide a springboard for new graduates to secure a permanent job in the future.
According to official data, the unemployment rate among local residents was at 4.1% from March-May. The share of new job-seekers grew by 0.9 percentage points to 6.5% of the total unemployed population from previous surveyed period.