The government does not have data on the number of residents that have been temporarily laid off or have had to take unpaid leave. The acknowledgment was made by the Chief Executive (CE), Ho Iat Seng, at the Legislative Assembly (AL) on Tuesday, during a Q&A session with lawmakers on a topic related to the government’s policy address for this year.
Replying to an inquiry from lawmaker Leong Sun Iok, the CE said, “We do not have information and data on those [workers] that are in a situation of layoff. We don’t know what is the figure. I would like that you could provide us with this information because without such data we can’t study or analyze the situation. The government cannot obtain such data because people [in that situation] still have a record [of employment] on the Social Security Fund. It’s a structural problem,” he said. He also noted that these individuals still have an employment connection and a valid working contract, and the fact that it is not mandatory to notify the labor authorities of layoffs, combine to disguise the real number of underemployed people in Macau from the authorities, and prevent them from planning measures to tackle the problem.
According to Ho, the sectors in which there is currently a severe shortage of manpower are the Food and Beverage industry and domestic work, sectors also according to the CE, local workers have no interest in working.
In another reply on the same topic made to lawmaker Ng Kuok Cheong, the CE expressed hope that in the period starting with the May 1 holiday and summer holidays many of these workers “in layoff can go back to their work.”
In the same reply to Ng, the CE noted that with continued requirement for non-resident workers to return to their countries of origin once their jobs can be filled by local residents, there “will be more job posts that will be freed and that can be taken by locals,” adding, “We hope residents can take those jobs, as some of them are not too heavy and I think they are suitable to be done by local people.”
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