Macau saw an increase in employment from October to December 2020, with the general unemployment rate declining by 0.2 percentage points from the previous period of September to November to 2.7%.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate of local residents also dropped by 0.2 percentage points to 3.8% in the last three months of 2020, according to data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
Total employment was 388,800 and the number of employed residents totalled 281,500, up by 2,600 and 3,200 respectively from the previous period. The number of the unemployed individuals decreased by 600 to 11,000.
Despite the decrease in unemployment, the city’s gaming and junket sector still saw a drop of 0.7% in its labor force during the latest survey period, with a total of around 76,300 employees.
By far, the gaming industry took up the greatest share of the city’s overall employment in October-December 2020. It was followed by 45,500 and 35,900 workers in the wholesale and retail trade, and construction industries respectively. These two industries bucked the trend and demonstrated an uptick of 4.4% and 2.1% in employment respectively.
Overall, the city’s general unemployment rate and the unemployment rate of local residents stood at 2.7% and 3.8% respectively in the fourth quarter of 2020, down 0.2 and 0.3 percentage points from the third quarter of last year.
The city’s gaming industry has been suppressed by the double whammy of Covid-19 and the stringent regulations on overseas gambling activities imposed by the Chinese government.
This blow to the gaming sector is also validated by the number of licensed junket promoters in the city which fell 10.5% to 85 in January 2021, according to figure released last week by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).
This year marks the eighth consecutive year the city has seen a yearly decline in the number of licensed junkets.
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