Earlier this year, some residents in Zhuhai, in the adjacent Guangdong Province, relocated to Macau before coronavirus restrictions were enforced in February.<\/p>\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>\nIn 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>\nHe 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":"\n
Macau Unemployment Reaches Highest Rate in Eight Years:<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n