56% of employees forced to take unpaid leave: survey

Around 56.06% of the local employees interviewed claimed that they had been forced to take unpaid leave, according to the latest research published yesterday by the Macao Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM).
The survey conducted by the FAOM looks into the employment situation of Macau’s workforce. Approximately 56.23% of the respondents said their salaries have been reduced by up to 30% during the pandemic.
Another 20.88% of the respondents said that their monthly incomes aren’t covering their monthly expenses, such as meals, rent, mortgage, and bills for water, electricity, phone and internet bills. Also, the survey shows that around 87.54% of local employees surveyed are hoping the SAR government will to launch a third round of consumer vouchers
The FAOM suggests the SAR government implement relief measures and roll out the third round of consumer vouchers as soon as possible to help locals ride out the economic storm.
The alliance also advised authorities to increase the quota for subsidized vocational training and increase support for small and medium-sized enterprises in Macau.
In Macau, the unemployment rate of local residents was 3.7% from November 2020 to January 2021, down by 0.1 percentage point when compared to the previous period of October-December 2020. The underemployment rate dropped by 0.6 percentage points to 4.4%.