The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released survey results of Manpower Needs and Wages of the Gaming Sector for the fourth quarter of 2015. Survey coverage excludes junket promoters and junket associates.

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2015, the Gaming Sector had 56,217 full-time employees, down by 2.7% year-on-year, of which 24,619 were dealers, down by 4.4% year-on-year. Shift working employees in the Gaming Sector accounted for 92.6% of the total.

In December 2015, average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) of full-time employees in the Gaming Sector stood at MOP21,630, up by 4.6% year-on-year. Average earnings of dealers increased by 4.3%, at MOP18,780.

Job vacancies totalled 462 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2015, down by 379 year-on-year. Most of the vacancies were for clerks and service & sales workers, while no vacancies for dealers were recorded in this quarter.

In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 42.0% of the vacancies required working experience; 70.6% required senior secondary education or higher; requirement for knowledge of Mandarin and English accounted for 88.7% and 55.8% respectively.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, a total of 376 new employees were hired, a substantial decline of 80% from 1,968 in the same quarter of 2014, bringing the employee recruitment rate (0.7%) down by 2.7 percentage points year-on-year; meanwhile, the employee turnover rate (1.8%) and job vacancy rate (0.8%) fell by 0.8 and 0.6 percentage points respectively. The decrease of the indicators suggested a further slowdown in demand for manpower in the Gaming Sector.

As regards vocational training, the Gaming sector had 34,527 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 48.2% year-on-year. Most participants (53.9%) attended courses in Business & Administration, followed by Gaming & Entertainment Services (31.9%). The majority of courses were organized by the gaming enterprises, and number of participants accounted for 98.7% of the total.