The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released results of the Survey on Manpower Needs and Wages for the second quarter of 2014. Survey coverage comprised the Gaming Sector, Wholesale & Retail Trade; Transport, Storage & Communications; Security Activities and Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities, excluding own-account workers, junket promoters and junket associates. At the end of the second quarter of 2014, the Gaming Sector had 57,550 persons engaged, up by 3.5% year-on-year, among which 25,783 were dealers. Average earnings (excluding bonuses and allowances) of full-time employees in June 2014 stood at MOP20,160, up by 6.7% year-on-year, with dealers earning MOP17,530 in average. Wholesale & Retail Trade had 48,717 persons engaged, up by 14.2% year-on-year, with 30,859 working in Retail trade. In June, average earnings of full-time employees rose by 6.7% year-on-year to MOP11,800. Transport, Storage & Communications had 9,483 persons engaged, up by 4.0% year-on-year. In June, average earnings of full-time employees rose by 11.6% year-on-year to MOP19,200. Security Activities had 6,592 persons engaged, up by 23.7% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in June rose by 11.8% year-on-year to MOP9,770. Public Sewage & Refuse Disposal Activities had 723 persons engaged, down by 1.2% year-on-year. Average earnings of full-time employees in June increased by 4.7% year-on-year to MOP14,780. At the end of the second quarter of 2014, the Gaming Sector had 1,529 vacancies, down by 62 year-on-year, of which vacant posts for dealers fell significantly by 319. Wholesale & Retail Trade reported 5,762 vacancies, up by 1,953 year-on-year, with 3,623 posts in Retail Trade. Vacancies in Security Activities rose by 281 year-on-year to 946. In terms of language skills, besides Cantonese, 85.5% and 72.1% of the vacancies in the Gaming Sector required knowledge of Mandarin and English respectively; the respective rate in Retail Trade was 85.5% and 62.4%. In the second quarter of 2014, a total of 3,124 new employees were hired in the Gaming Sector; the employee recruitment rate (5.5%) increased by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year, while the job vacancy rate (2.6%) decreased by 0.2 percentage points, indicating that some of the vacancies have been filled. Among other surveyed industries, the employee turnover rate and the job vacancy rate generally increased year-on-year, with the vacancy rate staying high, suggesting that there was no significant improvement in employee turnover and many of the vacancies in these industries were still unoccupied. As regards vocational training in the surveyed industries, a total of 36,568 participants attended training courses organized, co-organized or sponsored by the establishment in the second quarter of 2014. The Gaming Sector had the largest number of participants (17,328), and most of them (50.9%) attended courses in "Gaming and Entertainment Services"; Security Activities had 8,519 participants, with 34.3% attending courses in "Services".
