Unemployment still worries lawmakers

Lei Chan U

Unemployment and the protection of the jobs of local residents was, once again, under the spotlight, with several lawmakers addressing the plenary at the Legislative Assembly on this theme in the period before the agenda.

Representatives from the Macau Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM), Ella Lei and Lei Chan U hope that the authorities will take the opportunity of the surge in visitor numbers and the need for labor in several industries to promote the hiring and promotion of local residents.

The FAOM lawmakers feared that the sudden demand for workers in the different sectors would be used as a convenient excuse to hire non-local workers due to difficulties in finding and processing applications from local candidates.

Ella Lei

“It is necessary to disseminate information on the distribution of vacancies, and hold job matching sessions for local candidates,” Ella Lei said. “The government must also monitor the same types of work in the different sectors and companies, to find out whether local workers are still underemployed or taking unpaid leave, closely monitoring the current situation of the residents’ employment market,” she added.

On the same topic, Lei Chan U noted the need to balance the demand for labor, ensuring that residents are given priority access to employment.

“During the pandemic, some non-resident workers (TNRs) left their jobs. Companies only kept the [minimum] necessary human resources. With the rapid recovery of the tourism sector, the problem of the lack of labor arises, and there are already voices [in the community] asking for an increase in import quotas. If we compare with the pre-pandemic period, the unemployment and underemployment rate in Macau remains high.

According to the most recent data, which may be out of date, there are, respectively, 13,200 unemployed and 13,900 underemployed residents,” he said. He called on the government not to allow a proliferation of new TNR quotas while a significant number of residents are still struggling.

José Pereira Coutinho

Digging deeper into the topic, lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho stated, “The recovery of the unemployment [rate] among young people is happening at a very slow pace due to the high number of non-resident and unskilled workers. [These workers] subject themselves to lower wages, rights and benefits compared to local workers, hampering the entry of Macau’s young people into the labor market.”

He also added that the fact that the government has not been recruiting young people for civil service posts is also contributing to the high youth unemployment rate. The same criticism applies to the gaming concessionaires, who also refrain from hiring them due to their lack of experience.