Government to ensure steady jobless rate

The SAR government will continue to improve the employment environment, promote job creation and also to ensure that a relatively low unemployment rate can be maintained in Macau, Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On said.

He made the remark in his speech during the cocktail reception hosted by the Macau Federation of Trade Unions (FAOM) to celebrate the May 1 Labour Day and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Federation.

Fernando Chui Sai On said the government is working on improving local workers’ overall employment environment through “enhancing the investment environment, promoting public infrastructure investment, supporting small and medium sized enterprises, making good use of the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement with mainland China as well as pushing forward regional cooperation between Guangdong and Macau”.

He also vowed that the government will strive to facilitate the implementation of various public and private investment projects in a bid to create more job opportunities in Macau.

According to the latest official statistics, the unemployment rate of local residents for the first quarter of this year was reported at 3.7 percent, held steady when comparing to the fourth quarter of 2009. The overall unemployment rate including imported labour was 2.9 percent.

Besides, the Chief Executive said tailor-made measures will be continued so as to promote the employment of local workers.
He urged local enterprises to fulfill their corporate social responsibilities and to hire imported labour only to supplement the insufficiency in the local labour force.

The SAR government is going to keep on listening to public opinion in order to further enhance related legislation and regulations, Fernando Chui Sai On said.

In the meantime he reiterated that the government “doesn’t accept the existence of illegal labour at all”, adding cross-departmental cooperation will be optimised to step up effort in combating illegal workers and prosecuting their employers.

Following the social development and regional economic integration, the Chief Executive said it’s inevitable that Macau will face various opportunities and challenges.
Macau people, including manual workers, “apparently need to upgrade their own quality and capabilities”, he said, and hence the government will reinforce vocational training for them.