Results of Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the 2nd Quarter 2009 Gaming Industry

The Statistics and Census Service released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages of the Gaming Sector for the second quarter of 2009. Survey coverage excluded junket promoters and junket associates. At the end of the second quarter of 2009, the Gaming Sector had 43,975 employees, down by 3.6% year-on-year. Analyzed by occupations that are directly related to betting services, 18,084 were dealers, down by 5.7% year-on-year, 12,209 were hard & soft count clerks, cage cashiers, pit bosses, casino floorpersons, betting service operators, etc., up by 5.2% year-on-year. Meanwhile, 5,087 were casino & slot machine attendants, security guards, surveillance room operators, etc., down by 4.9% from a year earlier. In June 2009, average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) for full-time employees dropped by 2.0% year-on-year to MOP 15,260. Average earnings for dealers fell by 4.8% over June 2008 to MOP 13,120, and that of hard & soft count clerks, cage cashiers, pit bosses, casino floorpersons, betting service operators, etc. stood at MOP 18,600, down by 1.1%. The average earnings for casino & slot machine attendants, security guards, surveillance room operators, etc. registered a year-on-year increase of 7.5% to MOP 10,060. At the end of June 2009, number of vacancies of the Gaming Sector decreased drastically by 52.7% year-on-year to 361, with 50 for dealers, 39 for hard & soft count clerks, cage cashiers, pit bosses, casino floorpersons, betting service operators, etc. and 72 casino & slot machine attendants, security guards, surveillance room operators, etc. As regards recruitment prerequisites, 63.7% of the vacancies required working experience; 50.7% required senior secondary education or higher. Besides Cantonese, other preferred language skills were Mandarin (64.5%) and English (57.6%).