Macau’s labor market remains relatively stable on the surface, but the latest official data suggests that unemployment continues to be concentrated in sectors that have traditionally carried significant weight in the city’s economy. According to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), Macau’s overall unemployment rate stood at 1.7% in the period from December 2025 to February 2026, while the unemployment rate for local residents held at 2.2%. The city had 6,400 unemployed residents during that period.
What stands out is the sectoral origin of that unemployment. DSEC said that among jobless residents seeking a new position, most had previously worked in retail trade and the gaming sector. That detail is important because it points less to a broad labor market downturn and more to continued pressure inside two of Macau’s most visible consumer-facing industries.
Additional labor data helps explain the pattern. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, Macau’s gaming industry employed 53,272 people, a modest 0.2% increase year-on-year, while wholesale and retail trade employed 66,807 people, but recorded a 2.5% year-on-year decline. Those figures suggest that retail, in particular, is still absorbing structural pressure even as visitor activity and gaming revenues have improved.
The latest labor release also showed that underemployment remains limited. Macau’s general underemployment rate was 1.6%, while the rate for local residents was 2.1% in the same December-February period.
The broader takeaway is that Macau is not facing a generalized employment crisis. Instead, the city appears to be dealing with a more targeted adjustment, where retail and gaming continue to dominate the employment story — both in hiring and, for some residents, in displacement.
