Unemployment rate edges up to 1.8 per cent in Q4

Macau’s unemployment rate rose for the first time in six months, reaching 1.8 per cent between October and December, official statistics show.

According to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), the figure increased by 0.1 percentage points compared with the September–November period, with the number of unemployed rising by around 100 to 6,800.

Nevertheless, the rate remains less than half of that recorded in the third quarter of 2022 (4 per cent), the highest level since 2006, when Macau faced a severe economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The recovery driven by the end of the ‘zero Covid’ policy, which had been in effect in Macau and Mainland China for more than three years, saw unemployment fall to 1.6 per cent between November 2024 and January 2025, marking a historic low since the DSEC began collecting unemployment data in Macau in 1992, prior to the territory’s handover from Portugal to China.

The main contributor to the recent rise in unemployment was the construction sector.

By contrast, employment in casinos – Macau’s largest private employer – grew by around 900, despite the closure by the end of 2025 of ten ‘satellite casinos’, which had employed roughly 5,600 local residents.

The three concessionaires managing the ‘satellite casinos’ pledged to guarantee jobs at other gaming venues for staff with Macau resident status who were directly employed by the companies.

Other local workers were “invited to apply for related positions” within the group, “with priority in hiring” and under the same terms and conditions they previously enjoyed.

The gaming regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, said it would cooperate with the Labour Affairs Bureau to ensure compliance with the guarantees provided by the concessionaires, including “the redeployment of all the workers concerned.”