The findings of the new annual survey on women’s living and employment conditions, co-conducted by the Macau Federation of Trade Unions (Gung Luen), show that nearly 80 percent of the respondents indicated that their incomes have remained unchanged during Macau’s economic recovery, an increase of 20 percentage points compared to last year’s survey, with more than 60 percent of the respondents saying that their families have not been able to benefit from the economic recovery.
“The employment environment has not improved after the three-year COVID-19 pandemic [2020-2022],” the survey’s findings quoted respondents as saying, noting that their incomes have even decreased. Among the respondents, nearly 90 percent said they hoped that the government would introduce a new round of financial assistance and other measures to protect local employment, including an increase in paid holidays and more opportunities for female employment and career development.
The 2025 survey on Women’s Living and Employment Conditions was conducted in the first two months of the year, during which 970 valid questionnaires were collected from local women aged 18 or above. About 70 percent of the respondents said they were employed, with the highest proportion working in the education sector, followed closely by the entertainment and gaming sector, medical and health sector, and social welfare sector. Another 73 percent of the respondents said they were “very” or “relatively” worried about their job prospects.
The findings show that 68 percent of respondents consider life stressful or very stressful, quoting them as saying that finances were their main source of stress, with major expenses arising from daily spending on food and beverages, utilities, childcare, transport, medical care, and mortgage payments.
Referring back to the findings of last year’s survey, only 55 percent of the respondents then reported experiencing financial pressure. Additionally, about 80 percent of the respondents expressed the hope that the government would introduce financial assistance and other support measures amid the city’s economic recovery.
This year’s report points out that, summarising the respondents’ feedback, the other sources of stress include caring for children or the elderly, health conditions, and family relationships.
The findings reveal that the respondents agree that the most effective policies to encourage childbearing include extending maternity leave from 70 to 90 days, increasing maternity allowances, introducing childcare subsidies, and providing bonus points for social housing allocation. The respondents also expected, according to the findings, the government to implement specific policies related to women, including improving medical protection, paying special attention to children’s education and youth development, as well as increasing support for children’s education, and improving the city’s social and retirement protection systems.
According to a statement provided by the Macau Federation of Trade Unions (commonly known as Gung Luen in Cantonese) to the Post yesterday, directly-elected lawmaker-cum-unionist Ella Lei Cheng I pointed out that many women have expressed concerns about the re-employment challenges faced by previously full-time mothers, as well as difficulties for middle-aged women. She suggested that the government closely monitor residents’ financial pressure and enhance various measures to benefit the community, such as its annual wealth-sharing handout scheme, consumer vouchers, water and electricity subsidies, and medical vouchers, also emphasising the need to improve local employment opportunities through training and incentives, making the protection of local residents’ employment a long-term priority by formulating recruitment and promotion indicators for local talents showing potential for working in certain industries, while launching diversified training programmes to facilitate the career development of employees, females in particular.
The findings were released by the federation at press conference on its premises on Friday.
Lei also called on the government to actively study the feasibility of gradually increasing the number of maternity leave days in a targeted manner, as well as to review the upward adjustment of a number of paid leave days for employees under the city’s Labour Relations Law.
According to the latest official demographics, 53.7 percent of Macau’s population of 688,300 was female at the end of last year. The population figure includes non-resident workers (NRWs) living in Macau.
Representatives from the co-conductors of the “2025 survey on Women’s Living and Employment Conditions”, including Macau Federation of Trade Unions (Gung Luen) Vice President Ella Lei Cheng I (second from left), a directly-elected lawmaker, release their survey findings during Friday’s press conference on the Gung Luen premises. – Photo courtesy of TDM
