Stephen Lao Ka Weng, the president of Power of the Macao Gaming Association, noted that “Many of the staff are actually willing to take those unpaid leave options, and everyone is a bit used to it already.”

He added that recently, “during some busier days at the gaming floors,” some local gaming workers had “even been asked by their employers to work overtime”.

However, job situation at the Macau junket operators – where junket representatives are not employed by the actual casinos – was “much more worrying”, Mr Lao noted.

“Many of the junket operators’ staff have been underemployed for quite some time already, as their businesses have dwindled so much,” he stated.

“Some junket staff said they had been asked by their employers to just take compensation for voluntarily resigning from the company. In other cases, the junket staff have been transferred to the VIP gaming salons with better client traffic as their employers have axed their original work places,” Mr Lao added.

For the September to November period, Macau’s unemployment tally stood at 11,600. Most of those searching for a new job, were previously working in either “gaming and junket activities”, or the “construction sector”, according to the latest official data.

The number of the underemployed during the period amounted to 21,400, with the majority working in “gaming and junket activities” and the “transport and storage sector”, according to the census data.

Of those three months, the general unemployment rate stood at 2.9%; while the unemployment rate of local residents was at 4.0%, the census noted.

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