Macau to Reduce Intake of Foreign Workers

May 2009POEA MARKET UPDATE NO. 07-09MACAU TO REDUCE INTAKE OF FOREIGN WORKERSThe Macau Special Administrative Region (Macau SAR) Government has announced that its policy of reducing the intake of foreign workers and cracking down on illegal and overstaying workers will continue. Chief Executive Edmund Ho announced this during the plenary session of the Legislative Assembly on 16 April 2009. According to Chief Executive Ho, the Macau government is committed to give locals top priority for jobs while acknowledging the contribution of foreign workers to their economy. Under Macau's localization program, jobs are sourced initially from local workers. Only jobs which cannot be fill in by the locals, as determined by the Labor Office Bureau of Macau, are open to foreign workers. However, Macau's small population is unable to create an adequate manpower supply that could fill in the demand of a rapidly changing labor market.Among the measures to implement the policy are:• Jobs for table games supervisors and 1,000 managerial positions will be given to locals;• The number of foreign workers will be reduced in...