The number of people employed in the Macau casino industry during the second quarter dropped slightly when compared with the same three-month period in 2016 although average salaries experienced a minimal increase.

According to a report from the city’s Statistics And Census Service, there were 55,708 full-time employees working in Macau casinos at the end of June excluding those engaged by junket-related businesses, which represented a 3% decline year-on-year. Of these, the number of dealers decreased by 3.1% to 24,285 although director and management positions rose by 3.6% to 2,314.

The figures show that the sector hired 660 new employees during the second quarter, which represented a plunge of 66.5% when compared to the 1,972 hires during the same period in 2015, although there was 80 more job vacancies year-on-year at 587 with most of these for clerk, service and sales positions. This drop drove the industry’s worker recruitment rate down by 2.3 percentage points to 1.2% while employee turnover remained unchanged at 1.5% although the job vacancy ratio rose slightly by 0.1 percentage points to 1%.

“These indicators suggested a continued slowdown in demand for manpower in the gaming sector,” read a statement from the Statistics And Census Bureau.

However, the news was not all bad as the sector’s average monthly full-time salary improved by 2.7% year-on-year to $2,758 in June while the median monthly compensation for dealers jumped by 2% to $2,374.

The figures from the Statistics And Census Service indicate that resident workers received a 2.9% bump year-on-year in average pay for June to $2,770 although monthly compensation for non-resident workers fell by 0.9% to $2,593.

The situation was even better for senior management positions as June salaries averaged $6,449, which was 1.2% up year-on-year, while non-resident employees at such levels saw pay rates climb by 12.9% to $10,154 despite only a 1% boost to $6,064 for local staff of the same rank.

In terms of vocational training, 79,385 employees from the gaming sector attended courses during the three-month period, which was a 77.3% swell year-on-year, with 35.3% visiting classes on gaming and entertainment services followed by business and administration seminars at 34.1%.