Hotels and businesses in the gaming industry encounter “the greatest challenges in recruiting and retaining Macau residents for jobs such as security guards, catering staff, kitchen assistants, housekeeping, and frontline service positions”, says Jennifer Liao, director of human resources agency EvolutionHR.
The recruitment specialist believes that there are a number of reasons why Macau residents shun these jobs.
“The salary levels for those jobs are relatively low compared to other positions, such as a casino croupier”, says Liao.
In June this year, the average pay of all the 54,554 gaming industry employees, including senior managers, stood at MOP18,900, while the average pay of the city’s 24,031 croupiers was MOP16,720, according to official statistics.
Given the choice, Macau citizens “tend to opt for croupier jobs over frontline service positions, which is one of the areas facing acute shortages”, according to Jiji Tu, director of human resource agency, MSS Recruitment and hello-Jobs.com.
Apart from the “unattractive” salaries in areas such as security, housekeeping and catering, these jobs are “worked on shifts, the workplace is, in many cases, far from home, and the work is physically demanding”, Jiji Tu explains.
The experts consulted by CLOSER are unanimous: in Macau, all sectors and industries face challenges when it comes to recruiting people with the necessary qualifications and professional experience.
This is a city with a small population and where there is no scarcity of work. The unemployment rate in the period between June and August of this year stood at 1.9 percent. In other words, there were only 7,200 unemployed people. The working population for that period was estimated at more than 368,000 people, of which more than 361,000 were employed.
“Macau is a market where those seeking employment have a real chance at success”, says Jennifer Liao.
But people willing to work in those jobs that demand physical effort, be it in the area of construction, dishwashing or waiting tables in restaurants “are always in short supply”, says Derek Szeto, vice-president of the Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Macau (APMEM).
“Drivers are always needed, given that Government regulations require them to be Macau residents”, he explains.
Technical jobs that require years of training such as car mechanics and repairmen, are areas where small and medium enterprises (SMEs) find it difficult to find skilled labour. SME’s operating in the construction, hotel and restaurant industries also face greater shortages.
“The hotel and restaurant sectors depend heavily on the hiring of foreign workers”, says Szeto. But, basically, “with the unemployment rate as low as it is in Macau, all sectors are in need of skilled labour”.
JOBS TO SPARE
The wholesale and retail sector is another area that faces shortages and difficulties in the recruitment and retention of skilled labour, particularly in sales and operational roles.
Between June and August this year, there were 3,809 vacancies in the wholesale and retail trade, 916 and 2,656 respectively. In the areas of security 665 vacancies remained unfilled, while in transport, storage and communications there were a further 770 vacancies. In hotels there were 2,086 unfilled positions, and a further 2,107 in restaurants and food outlets, plus 1,260 in manufacturing.
The positions passed over by locals, generally speaking, do not require high academic qualifications. According to official statistics, 88 percent of the vacancies in the security industry only require a grade below, or equivalent to, general secondary education. In retail, 41.8 percent of jobs require an academic level equivalent or above secondary education, 88.9 percent require mastery of Mandarin and 55.8 percent of English. In restaurants and food outlets 77.2 percent of jobs require an academic level lower than, or equivalent to, secondary education.
The industries that attract the greatest amount of skilled manpower are cultural and recreational activities, gaming and other services, which in the second quarter of 2013, employed more than 91,000 people, followed by the hospitality and catering sector that employed more than 55,000 people, and wholesale and retail with over 46,000 employees.
Next in line is the construction industry that employs over 32,000 workers, and the real estate sector, including rental and businesses services, with over 27,000. Public administration and social security emerges as the sixth sector that provides the most employment in Macau, accounting for over 24,000 employees. The transport, storage and communications sector employs more than 16,000 people.
PRIORITY TO LOCALS
The employer’s first choice is always to hire “Macau residents with skills that match the job requirements”, explains Jennifer Liao of EvolutionHR. “Only in cases where it is not possible to fill the position with a Macau resident, do employers consider recruiting labour from abroad”.
In the case of casino croupiers, employers have no choice but to employ Macau residents, as the law stipulates that those positions are exclusively available to residents. But for those jobs considered less appealing to locals, “there is a strong demand for imported labour”, Liao confirms, a statement backed by Jiji Tu of MSS Recruitment and hello-Jobs.com.
For small to medium enterprises, lack of labour continues to be one of the greatest obstacles in the sector. Derek Szeto from APMEM confirms that businesses “are constantly needing and trying to recruit people with the broadest scope of competencies, from lesser qualified workers to people for positions of greater responsibility, management and administration positions. Casinos and big hotels end up having greater capacity to attract talent as they can offer greater long-term career progression. This is in addition to the fact that the gaming and entertainment industries can offer very competitive salaries”, Szetzo notes.
To circumvent the labour shortage problem, business owners, especially those of micro-enterprises, choose to do the jobs themselves, filling vacancies or covering holiday periods. Sometimes the only solution left is to reduce the volume of sales or business, which ultimately affects the business itself.
Derek Szeto believes that the solution for SME’s lies beyond the recruitment of foreign labour. The association is therefore in the process of preparing a white paper, which should be available this month, with proposals to increase the competitiveness of SMEs through different measures, including legislative alterations. He did not advance any details regarding the suggested solutions.
JUST COMMON SENSE
Macau recently saw its streets filled with protesters demanding that the Government legally prohibit the recruitment of skilled foreign workers to work as croupiers. Their concern is that there may be changes to the current policy of hiring of only local workers for these jobs, and that non-residents may come to have access to them. Meanwhile, the government has, on various occasions, reiterated that it would continue to only allow Macau citizens to work in these positions.
Lawyer Miguel Quental, an expert in labour law, says that there are enough laws to regulate labour activity in Macau, but concedes that there is no specific written law that explicitly restricts employers when hiring residents or non-resident workers.
“The fundamental law governing the employment of non-residents (Law No. 21/2009) provides for a set of general principles, where it follows that the recruitment of non-residents aims to fill what the locals cannot, are not capable of, or do not want to do”, the lawyer explains.
The general principle of the laws of Macau is that of giving priority to local labour, however exactly how these laws are interpreted and implemented is very much up to the Government.
“The process is discretionary. The Government approves [non-resident labour] applications as it sees fit, and businesses need to demonstrate that the skilled labour does not exist in Macau. But there are many skilled positions that we know do not exist in the region and that are not approved. What is needed is more common sense”, the lawyer concludes.
