Macao's hotels, restaurants sector employees up

The number of paid employees of Macao's hotels and restaurants sector reached 58,088 at the end of the third quarter, an increase of 17.2 percent over the same period of the previous year, according to the results of a survey released Friday by Macao's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). The survey showed that the average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) for full-time employees of hotels and restaurants sector rose by 5.2 percent year-on-year to 10,750 patacas (1,343 U. S. dollars) in September 2011, with waiters of hotels and those of restaurants earned an average of 7,310 patacas (913 U.S. dollars) and 6,260 patacas (782 U.S. dollars) respectively on average. At the end of September 2011, hotels and restaurants sector reported 7,425 vacancies, the DSEC said. The survey also indicated that the manufacturing sector, and sector of electricity, gas and water supply, registered decreases in the number of paid employees in the third quarter of this year, at the year-on-year rates of 13.2 percent and 0.1 percent respectively. In terms of recruitment prerequisites, more than 50 percent of the vacancies in these industries required working experience. Meanwhile, a high level of employee turnover was also observed in manufacturing sector in the period, where the employee turnover rate stood at 7.9 percent, according to the DSEC survey.