The number of paid employees in the gaming industry stood at 43,835 in the fourth quarter last year, down 2 percent year-on-year, the latest figures released yesterday from the Statistics and Census Service show.

The survey on manpower needs and wages of the gaming industry for the fourth quarter of 2008, which excluded junket promoters and junket associates, shows that analysed by occupations that are directly related to betting services, 18,196 were dealers, down by 6.5 percent year-on-year, while 11,874 were engaged in positions such as hard and soft count clerks, cage cashiers, pit bosses, casino floor-persons, betting service operators, up by 7.7 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, 5,059 were working as casino and slot machine attendants or hosts, security and surveillance workers, down by 5.3 percent from a year earlier.

In December 2008, average earnings excluding bonuses and allowances for full-time employees in the gaming industry rose by 4.9 percent year-on-year to 15,626 patacas. Average earnings for dealers grew by 6.0 percent over December 2007 to 13,947 patacas, and that for employees in positions such as hard and soft count clerks, cage cashiers, pit bosses, casino floor-persons and betting service operators stood at 19,520 patacas, up by 6.6 percent.

The average earnings for casino and slot machine attendants/hosts, security and surveillance workers, etc. reported a year-on-year increase of 6.0 percent to 9,604 patacas.

At the end of December 2008, the gaming industry reported 258 vacant posts, a substantial decrease of 3,153 or -92.4 percent from a year earlier. Of these vacancies, 28 were for dealers, 59 for hard and soft count clerks, cage cashiers, pit bosses, casino floor-persons, and betting service operators, while 41 for services and sales workers, including casino and slot machine attendants/hosts, security and surveillance workers.

In terms of recruitment prerequisites, 55.0 percent of the vacancies required no working experience, 79.4 percent required senior secondary education or higher. Besides Cantonese, other preferred language skills were Mandarin at 66.3 percent and English at 67.4 percent.