{"id":134267,"date":"2020-04-28T02:38:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T09:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=134267"},"modified":"2020-04-29T06:51:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T13:51:48","slug":"macau-unemployment-reaches-highest-rate-in-eight-years-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/macau-unemployment-reaches-highest-rate-in-eight-years-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Macau Unemployment Reaches Highest Rate in Eight Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number of jobless workers in Macau during the start of 2020 reached an eight-year high, given economic pressures from the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"Macau
Macau is seeing an increase in unemployment since the coronavirus pandemic. (Image: Medium)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

General unemployment in the Chinese gaming enclave edged up by 0.4 percent year-versus-year to 2.1 percent for the early quarter, Macau News<\/em>, a local news publication,<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n

General unemployment is defined by Macau officials as the unemployment rate experienced by local employees and non-resident workers, the news report adds. Altogether, there were 8,500 unemployed people in Macau.<\/p>\n

More specifically, the local unemployment rate for the start of 2020 increased by 0.6 percent to 2.9 percent, the report said. Since January, tourism, hotels, gaming, transport, storage, retail, restaurants, and other sectors in Macau’s economy were hurt by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Macau saw 191,377 non-resident workers during early 2020. Most were from the Chinese mainland (116,500), the Philippines (34,180), and Vietnam (14,793), according to the Labor Affairs Bureau, Macau News <\/em>said.<\/p>\n

\n

Macau\u2019s 2.1 percent general unemployment rate represents the first time the rate was above 2 percent since between April and June 2012, according to the government\u2019s Statistics and Census Bureau,\u00a0Macau News<\/em>\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In contrast, last May<\/a> unemployment between February and April fell 0.2 percent to 1.7 percent in Macau. That means just 6,600 locals were out of work and looking for a job a year ago.<\/p>\n

During the start of 2020, Macau saw 405,800 people employed. That is about 70.5 percent working in the labor force, Macau News<\/em> added.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, some residents in Zhuhai, in the adjacent Guangdong Province, relocated to Macau before coronavirus restrictions were enforced in February.<\/p>\n

Macau Unemployment Rate Not a Surprise<\/h2>\n

When asked for comment on the unemployment rate in Macau, the Rev. Richard McGowan, a finance professor at Boston College who closely follows the gaming sector, said the new jobless rate is \u201cnot at all\u201d a surprise. \u201cThe Macau casinos were the earliest ones closed due to coronavirus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

They lost 100 percent of the mainland business, and who would want to fly into China to gamble,\u201d McGowan told Casino.org<\/em>. He adds it will take \u201ca long time\u201d for the unemployment rate to improve, given visitors and players need to \u201cfeel comfortable\u201d before they travel to Macau and are \u201cclose to one another.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition, Macau\u2019s gaming properties need to set up a social distancing policy. That will mean there will be fewer players and \u201cclearly less table games,\u201d McGowan said.<\/p>\n

Also, he does not expect Macau\u2019s economy will diversify any time soon. \u201cMacau was established as the \u2018sin\u2019 capital of China,\u201d McGowan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an island off the Chinese coast,\u201d McGowan added. \u201cSo, there are not many ways it could diversify.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macau\u2019s economic experiences with the pandemic provide lessons for Massachusetts or elsewhere in the US, McGowan confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will take a long time before patrons feel comfortable to gamble in a casino,\u201d McGowan explained. \u201cAlso, the setup of the casino will have to change drastically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSlot machines will need to be further apart, table games will need to separate patrons, so there will have to be less patrons,\u201d he added. \u201cLess money for the state in taxes as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

David G. Schwartz, a gambling historian who is now an academic administrator at UNLV, is also not surprised by Macau\u2019s unemployment rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pandemic led to a closure and a major disruption of travel,\u201d Schwartz told Casino.org<\/em>. \u201cSo, it is not surprising that casinos are not able to maintain high staffing levels, even when opened.\u201d<\/p>\n

He presumes Macau casinos will \u201cstaff up as business improves.\u201d That is dependent on the larger recovery from the pandemic and people getting back to work, he adds.<\/p>\n

Reopening Casinos Just the Start<\/h2>\n

\u201cI think it demonstrates that just because casinos are allowed to open, business will not necessarily return immediately to pre-outbreak levels,\u201d Schwartz observed about wider trends. \u201cThere is a lot we don’t know right nowl Gut it seems that the recovery from the economic dislocations caused by the pandemic will take some time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, Macau\u2019s gross gaming revenue<\/a> (GGR) saw an 80 percent decline year versus year. GGR could be worse in April, JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd has projected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of jobless workers in Macau during the start of 2020 reached an eight-year high, given economic pressures from the coronavirus pandemic. General unemployment in the Chinese gaming enclave edged up by 0.4 percent year-versus-year to 2.1 percent for the early quarter, Macau News, a local news publication, reported. General unemployment is defined by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":134269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMacau Unemployment Reaches Highest Rate in Eight Years:<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The number of jobless workers in Macau during the start of 2020 reached an eight-year high given the pandemic. 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