The Government announce three measures to reduce non-resident workers in Macau, following a global economic slowdown.

Economic and Financial Secretary Tam Pak Yuen (譚伯源) announced that from 1 January 2009 onwards, the Government will not accept new applications for non-resident workers working as supervisors in casinos, with the aim to promote all local croupiers to the positions by next year.

New applications for introducing non-resident workers to the construction sector will also be unaccepted with immediate effect, while a review of the number of non-resident workers in the sector will be undertaken in order to cut the numbers further ‘according to the actual requirements’.

The Government will also aim to cut the number of non-resident cleaners and security guards by half when their contracts are due to expire.

Tam appealed to the public not to look at the number of non-resident workers alone, and should also look at the unemployment rate of the local labour force.

He said that unemployment in Macau remains low by international standards, although he admitted that further observations are necessary on the effects of the global economic prospects, in order to establish whether the Government can control the unemployment rate to under 4%.

Meanwhile, Director of Labour Affairs Bureau Shuen Ka Hung (孫家雄) said that training courses will be provided so that local croupiers will be capable to handle supervisory positions in the future.

Shuen also appealed to the local croupiers to take part in these courses, particularly to enhance their efforts in learning foreign

Source: Blogmacau.info