Labor sector lawmaker foresees easing of skills mismatch in construction workforce

With more public work projects to commence gradually in the future, the problem of a skills mismatch between jobs and workers should ease, lawmaker Ella Lei suggested yesterday.

When speaking with the Times on the sidelines of the parliament’s annual media lunch yesterday, Lei admitted that, in the recent phase, employment had fallen onto the construction industry.

“Workers in the industry became jobless because their original projects had concluded,” Lei explained, noting that “The Labour Affairs Bureau and the Macao Federation of Trade Unions have been providing assistance to them.”

The lack of employment was the result of a skills mismatch, she added. For example, public work projects may be in need of workers with skills absent in the unemployed.

“Although a wider range of skills may be needed in some current projects, such as the Island Hospital Complex, other projects are still in preliminary or initial phases that are not in need of the skills possessed by the unemployed workers,” she remarked, highlighting the New Urban Zone A as an example.

“The workers released from concluded projects are mostly decoration workers, carpenters as well as electricity and water supply workers, which will not fit in [to] public [road] works,” Lei further explained.

However, she hinted that, with the continual progress in public construction projects, such workers will be needed again soon.

As for other industries, Lei said that many workers originally in the gambling industry had sought help. Nonetheless, the overall numbers of unemployed seeking help has improved, considering tourist arrivals have been quite satisfactory during the Lunar New Year period. “Industries such as catering saw improvement in their workforce needs,” the lawmaker said. “Although retailers of small and medium size have reported better revenue during the period, they also attributed toughness in operations to high rental levels.”

Vaccination 

in schools

At the same event, lawmaker Ma Io Fong, teacher at Premier School Affiliated to Hou Kong Middle School, expressed his appreciation for the government’s measures in boosting vaccination take up, when he was asked questions related to the latest campus vaccination boost instruction given by the government.

The government is urging schools to encourage vaccination by citing the law. Meanwhile, it instructs schools to register, on a weekly basis, the names of students who are not vaccinated.

On the matter, the lawmaker said that “parents, as per their various domestic conditions, 

[should] comply with the government’s plan on vaccination measures and support.”

Moreover, the lawmaker said that, despite the new measure boosting campus jabs, the “no-jab-no-school” strategy has not yet been implemented.

“I have not heard about this as comments or instructions so far,” Ma said. “We have not yet been notified [that vaccination] has to be pushed forward mandatorily.”

When questioned about the fact that some parents are having doubts about the safety of the vaccines, Ma said: “The government has just issued a measure to offer a day of leave to civil servants who accompany their children to get vaccinated. What I think is better is that the government will issue more measures to encourage the public in general to get vaccinated.”