Results of survey on manpower needs and wages for the 2nd quarter of 2016 Gaming sector

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released survey results of Manpower Needs and Wages of the Gaming Sector for the second quarter of 2016. Survey coverage excludes junket promoters and junket associates. At the end of the second quarter of 2016, the Gaming Sector had 55,708 full-time employees, down by 3.0% year-on-year, of which 24,285 were dealers, down by 3.1%. Shift working employees accounted for 92.7% of the total employees in the Gaming Sector. In June 2016, average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time employees in the Gaming Sector stood at MOP22,060, up by 2.7% year-on-year. Average earnings of dealers increased by 2.0%, at MOP18,960. Job vacancies totalled 587 at the end of the second quarter of 2016, up by 80 year-on-year. Most of the vacancies were for clerks and service & sales workers. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 57.6% of the vacancies required working experience; 75.1% required senior secondary education or higher; requirement for knowledge of Mandarin and English accounted for 89.9% and 74.3% respectively. In the second quarter of 2016, a total of 660 new employees were hired, a substantial decline of 66.5% from 1,972 in the same quarter of 2015, bringing the employee recruitment rate (1.2%) down by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year; meanwhile, the employee turnover rate (1.5%) remained unchanged while the job vacancy rate (1.0%) rose slightly by 0.1 percentage point. These indicators suggested a continued slowdown in demand for manpower in the Gaming Sector. As regards vocational training, the Gaming sector had 79,385 participants attending training courses provided by the enterprise (including courses organized by the enterprise or in conjunction with other institutions, and those sponsored by the enterprise), up by 77.3% year-on-year. Most participants (35.3%) attended courses in Gaming & Entertainment Services, followed by Business & Administration (34.1%). The majority of courses were organized by the gaming enterprises, and number of participants accounted for 99.5% of the total.