Employment | 765 job hunters referred to DSAL for job-matching

The Macao Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM) has referred 765 job hunters to the Labor Affairs Bureau (DSAL), which affirmed it will offer a vocational matching service to the group within one month.
The majority of these job seekers have been classified as being underemployed, previously engaged in construction, tourism, and retail industries.
“We [the FAOM] had compiled the data [of these 765 people who are seeking jobs] as we are striving to boost the successful matching rate of the current job-matching mechanism,” Choi Kam Fu, director of the Rights Committee of the Macao Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM), told the press on the sidelines of an event yesterday.
In terms of follow-up efforts, authorities of the DSAL will soon set up categories of demarcation between the individuals along classifications of age, salary expectation and qualifications, and arrange for them to be matched with jobs that match their aspirations and skills within one month.
In yesterday’s media briefing, Chan Un Tong, Deputy Director of the DSAL, urged local job seekers to be more open to taking on jobs in other industries.
When questioned by the media as to whether such a suggestion would deepen the mismatch in Macau’s job market, Chan disagreed with the statement, stressing that most young job seekers have significant potential and range, and should take on new challenges.
“We noted that the job applicants, especially the fresh graduates, have recently adapted their attitude whilst job hunting. The adjusted attitude displayed a tendency to [have] some positive sentiments,” he said.
According to data provided by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), the unemployment rate of local residents stood at 3.9% from December 2020 to February 2021, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous period of November 2020 to January 2021. Most job hunters were employed in gaming and junket activities and in the construction sector, DSEC stated.
As of end-March, Macau had registered a total of 173,113 bluecard holders, down over 2,000, or 1.2%, from 175,196 month-to-month.

Optimized Subsidized Training Program applications open May 12

DSAL’s refined and extended Subsidized Training Program, comprised of the Skill-oriented Training Program and the Employment-oriented Training Program, is set to open to applications on May 12.
The Skill-oriented Training Program will be extended to employees in the gaming industry, and those who are on unpaid leave, even without a referral from their employers. Additionally, the quota-based mechanism was scrapped with no limit set on the number of participants for the coming round.
The scope of the Employment-oriented Training Program will also be extended to students who graduated in 2020 or later.
Eligible applicants can now sign up for the two types of programs two times each.
DSAL has also relaxed preconditions for completing the courses. It now accepts justifiable reasons for absences provided that the total absence hours do not exceed 20% of the total training hours.
The optimized training program is part of the government’s third round of stimulus to boost the city’s employment rate.