The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released survey results of Manpower Needs and Wages of the Gaming Sector for the fourth quarter of 2020. Survey coverage excludes junket promoters and junket associates.

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, there were 56,613 full-time employees in the Gaming Sector, a decrease of 1,612 year-on-year. Among them, dealers totalled 25,164, down by 295 year-on-year.

In December 2020, average earnings (excluding bonuses) of the full-time employees in the Gaming Sector were MOP23,440, down by 4.9% year-on-year. Average earnings of dealers dropped by 6.1% to MOP19,800.

As affected by the pandemic, number of vacancies decreased by 417 year-on-year to 26 at the end of the fourth quarter.

In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 50.0% of the vacancies required work experience and 50.0% required tertiary education; meanwhile, requirement for knowledge of Mandarin and English stood at 96.2% and 92.3% respectively.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, only 174 new employees were hired, a decrease of 86.6% as compared to the same quarter of 2019 (1,294). The employee recruitment rate (0.3%) and the employee turnover rate (1.0%) went down by 1.9 and 0.8 percentage points respectively, while the job vacancy rate fell to near zero. These indicators reflected a substantial decline in the demand for manpower in the Gaming Sector.

As regards vocational training, the Gaming Sector had 195,572 participants attending training courses provided by the enterprise (including courses organised by the enterprise or in conjunction with other institutions, and those sponsored by the enterprise), representing a year-on-year increase of 69.9%. The majority of the participants attended Services courses (36.4%), followed by Business & Administration courses (31.2%). Most of the courses were organised by the gaming enterprises, with the number of participants accounting for 98.5% of the total.