Local employment rate stable at 4.1%

The unemployment rate of local residents stood at 4.1% for the three-month period of March to May this year. This level was the same as the preceding period from February to April, according to fresh data issued last Friday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
But in a year-on-year comparison, the local unemployment statistic still represented an increase of 0.7 percentage points, when compared to 3.4% in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the general unemployment rate also remained steady from the February to April period at 3.0%.
The total number of unemployed people dropped by 100 to 11,900 from March to May. The majority of those looking for a job were engaged in gaming & junket, and construction sectors.
The percentage of new labor market entrants, most of them fresh graduates from schools, who are unemployed increased 0.9 percentage points from the previous surveyed period to 6.5% now.
The underemployment rate, an indicator for economic improvement, — declined by 0.6 percentage points to 4.2%. The actual number of the underemployed declined by 2,600 from the previous period to 16,300. Most have been working in gaming and construction industries.
According to a separate statement released on June 25 by the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), the authorities reaffirmed that they are doing their utmost to “assist job seekers to secure a position as soon as possible from different levels of work.”
From January to mid-June this year, a total of 6,080 persons were referred by the DSAL to attend a job interview through DSAL’s job-matching endeavors. Around 1,439 were employed successfully, with 70% of them engaging in construction, security, cleaning service and retail sectors.
During the first half of 2021, the DSAL organized a total of 18 job-matching events across different industries.
In the second quarter of this year, the DSAL collaborated with the city’s six casino operators to jointly mount 13 recruitment fairs, offering more than 1,300 vacancies. Participants included MGM, Galaxy, Wynn, Sands China, Grand Lisboa Palace and so on. In the end, 424 out of 2,675 job seekers referred by the DSAL were employed from the job fairs.
Given the mainland’s rapid digitization, the DSAL vows to forge partnerships with several renowned mainland enterprises and co-launch a set of internship programs in the coming third quarter, in a bid to offer opportunities for Macau’s youths to better chart their career path.