Fewer non-resident construction workers

A total of 180,277 non-resident workers were working in the Special Administrative Region as at the end of September, a slight decrease of one per cent, or 1,901, compared to the end of August, according to the latest official data released yesterday by the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL).
On a year-on-year comparison, the number of non-resident workers in September registered a slight decrease of 0.3 per cent, down from the 180,751 recorded in the same period last year.
As at the end of September, the city’s hotels and food & beverage establishments continued to be the largest employers of non-resident workers, with a total of 49,446 non-resident employees, accounting for 27.4 per cent of the total.
The number of non-resident employees in the sector represents a jump of 4.8 per cent, compared to 47,192 in September last year, while the number of workers increased by 75 compared to the end of August.

Construction workers down
The construction industry was the second largest employer of non-resident workers, with some 39,347 non-resident workers employed as at September-end, despite the number representing a year-on-year decrease of 13.5 per cent, down from 45,509 in the same month last year.
On a month-on-month comparison, the number of foreign labourers in the sector also decreased by 5.1 per cent, down from 41,470 in August.
DSAL data also revealed that 24,533 foreign workers were domestic helpers, an increase of 6.3 per cent year-on-year, up from 23,086. The number of foreign domestic helpers also grew by 162, up from 24,371 registered in August.
Other non-resident workers were primarily employed by the wholesale & retail industry (19,524), real-estate, industrial and commercial establishments (18,378), as well as culture, entertainment and gaming (13,528) – including the 1,207 construction workers directly hired by gaming corporations.

Keeping it close by
In terms of origin, Mainland Chinese workers accounted for 64.5 per cent of the city’s total foreign workforce in September, amounting to 116,191, a slight decrease of 0.4 per cent year-on-year, or down 1,788 from the previous month.
The second largest number of non-resident workers in Macau was from the Philippines, with a total of 25,970, representing an increase of nine per cent year-on-year, or a growth of 280 workers month-on-month.
Vietnamese nationals occupied the third position with 14,790 workers at the end of September, a jump of 2.2 per cent from the same month last year.
Hong Kong residents working in the city posted the largest decrease, down by 29 per cent year-on-year to 6,583, from 9,271.