Job losses rising across Macau as gaming industry continues to shrink

According to the results of a report published last Friday by its Statistics and Census Service, Macau’s casino workforce is currently being aggressively hit by the delayed impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

China’s draconian ‘zero-COVID’ policy has caused significant headaches in Macau, with the microstates over dependency on its gambling industry painfully exposed. In the initial months that followed the deadly outbreak, Beijing encouraged the special administrative region’s six operators to refrain from wholesale employment cuts. Although this instruction was largely observed, the prolonged extension of social restrictions means financial reserves are beginning to thin out.

Quite simply, Macau’s casino concessionaires can no longer afford to pay for a labour force assembled to accommodate high footfall and regular gaming activity, when both of these commodities are currently in extremely short supply. Therefore, as confirmed by the Statistics and Census Service’s findings, employment numbers are starting to decline. In June of this year, the volume of workers operating on Macanese gaming floors stood at 53,592. This represents a significant 2.3% reduction in heads within a mere six-month window. Furthermore, the study highlighted that average salaries are also starting to dwindle, with employees earning 2% less per month in June than they did in the final month of 2021.

Yet, it’s difficult to point blame at Macau’s weary gaming institutions. Despite supporting the national cause with PPE donations and permitting their hotel facilities to double-up as makeshift quarantine zones, local casino operators still find themselves in an environment still very much familiar with the lockdown cycle. Indeed, given their performance run rate, it’s a minor miracle that most operators have kept a full complement of staff for this length of time.

The first eight months of 2022 has seen the territory’s casinos generate roughly $3.57bn in gross gaming revenue; the like-for-like, pre-pandemic 2019 figure was north of $24.5bn.