Casino staff less confident and satisfied

2013-3-21

From：Macau Daily Times

Macau employees, in comparison to last year, are less confident and less satisfied professionally, especially those working in casinos. As many as 36 percent of local employees think their professional career is having a negative impact on their family life, according to the latest survey.
The Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) released the annual Employee Confidence and Satisfaction Index for 2013, which shows that the overall Confidence Index (CI) of local workers dropped marginally by 0.3 percent in the last 12 months to 3.13 points; while the Satisfaction Index (SI) also dropped 0.3 percent to a record low of 3.29 points.
Despite slight drops in both indexes of the survey, Macau employees’ confidence in job security and the human resources market as a whole (CI), as well as the fulfillment they derive from their occupation (SI) are essentially the same as last year, according to Professor Chan Lai Kow, Director of MUST’s Institute for Sustainable Development, which is responsible for conducting the survey financed by the Macao Foundation.
“The situation is basically the same as last year given the small margin of change, and more importantly, the indexes still remain above the 3-point level (which is the watershed marker for the index ranged between 1 – 5 points. The higher the number given, the more satisfied/confident the employee.) Because the economic condition maintains its good shape, and unemployment rate, according to government’s statistics, has been staying below 2 percent.”
But according to the survey, the drop in career confidence and job satisfaction for casino workers is more significant than workers in other professions. The survey interviewed 1,026 full time employees aged 16 or above, 306 of them are gaming industry workers, and 90 of them are working as croupiers. The CI and SI of casino workers recorded a 1.0 percent and 1.6 percent decrease respectively, which is greater than the average drop of 0.3 percent across the indexes.
“The component that recorded the biggest decline is ‘Employees’ Confidence in the Company’, which dropped 3.5 percent. For employees working outside the casino industry, the corresponding drop is 1.6 percent only.”
“On the whole, the gaming industry and its employees are more susceptible to impacts caused by external economic factors outside Macau than their counterparts in other industries. That’s why during the 2009 international financial crisis, non-gaming workers only recorded a 4 percent drop in CI while gaming industry workers had a 12 percent decline. Having said that, we also have to stress that the survey shows that since last year, Macau workers have completely moved out of the lingering shadow of the financial crisis.”
However, the survey also found that over 36 percent of the respondents think their work life is having a negative impact on their family life, due to the heavy workload and psychological pressure, as well as long and non-flexible working hours, which seriously reduces the quality time they can spend with their families.

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