The Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the third quarter of 2024 covers the Manufacturing sector; the Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector; Hotels; Restaurants; Child-care and Elderly Care services.

Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated a notable rise in the demand for manpower in tourism related industries on account of soaring visitor arrivals. Number of full-time employees in Hotels (58,638) increased by 4,836 (+9.0%) year-on-year at the end of the third quarter of 2024. Number of those in Restaurants (23,162), the Manufacturing sector (7,742) and Elderly Care services (1,425) went up by 248 (+1.1%), 207 (+2.7%) and 42 (+3.0%) respectively, while those in Child-care services (1,382) and the Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector (1,077) decreased by 105 (-7.1%) and 5 (-0.5%).

Average earnings (excluding irregular remuneration) of full-time employees in all the surveyed industries, except the Manufacturing sector, registered growth in September 2024. Average earnings of full-time employees in Hotels, Restaurants and Elderly Care services were MOP19,780, MOP10,600 and MOP16,980 respectively, up by 0.7%, 3.5% and 1.0% year-on-year. Average earnings of those in Child-care services (MOP16,500) and the Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector (MOP31,790) both recorded an increase of 0.7%. On the other hand, the average earnings of full-time employees in the Manufacturing sector (MOP12,820) went down by 1.2%.

At the end of the third quarter, job vacancies in Hotels (2,362) increased by 480 year-on-year, while those in Restaurants (1,188) decreased by 354. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 96.7% and 88.9% of the job vacancies in Restaurants and the Manufacturing sector required senior secondary education or lower, while 75.0% of the vacancies in the Electricity, Gas & Water Supply sector required tertiary education. Meanwhile, 94.8% and 76.4% of the vacancies in Hotels and Restaurants required knowledge of Mandarin as the majority of the visitors to Macao were from mainland China.

The job vacancy rate (3.9%) in Hotels climbed by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year in the third quarter, while the employee recruitment rate (6.5%) dropped by 6.3 percentage points, which implied that there were still many vacant posts to be filled in the sector. As for Restaurants, the job vacancy rate (4.9%) and the employee recruitment rate (5.5%) went down by 1.4 and 1.6 percentage points respectively, indicating a slowdown in demand for manpower in the industry.