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December 5, 2013
Macau
Pay big part of minimum wage firms’ overheads Security and cleaning operations already spend 80 pct plus of costs on worker pay Michael Grimes
michael.grimes@macaubusinessdaily.com
S
ecurity services and cleaning, the two commercial segments likely soon to see the introduction in the city of a minimum hourly wage, already fork out 84 percent and 81 percent respectively of their expenditure on labour. So says the Service Sector Survey for 2012 released yesterday by the Statistics and Census Service. The two sectors collectively employed 9,514 people last year and produced receipts of nearly 1.28 billion patacas (US$160.3 million). But in security services, 96 percent of the 759 million patacas in receipts came from just 12 companies. The 21 establishments with 50 or more people engaged in cleaning services accounted for only 18 percent of the total firms in the sector. But those 21 businesses took 74 percent of the 483 million patacas generated in segmental receipts.
Cleaning services – 4,395 employed last year
The story was different for the real estate management sector, where 86 percent of the establishments had fewer than 50 persons engaged, but accounted for 58 percent of the sector’s 924 million patacas receipts. Property management employed 5,139 people in 2012, according to the survey. In advertising, small outfits predominated. There were 325 establishments with five or fewer people, but their receipts made up 47 percent of the segment’s total 399 million patacas. There were 33 entities working in conference and exhibition organising services, up by seven year-on-year; employing 130 people and generating 206 million patacas for the segment. “Conference and exhibition organising services saw rapid growth in recent years, with notable year-on-year increase in receipts and expenditure between 2007 and 2012, except in 2011,” said the statistics service in a commentary on the survey. An important statistic covered by the survey is the expenditure of firms in the service sector – because of its multiplier effect in terms the local economy. In 2012 spending in the segments researched came to 2.39 billion patacas. Gross value added, a measure of the segmental and sectoral contribution to the economy, was highest in security services, up by 28 percent year-on-year, to 681 million patacas. Gross fixed capital formation was highest in advertising, at 34 million patacas – up 396 percent apparently due to an increase in acquisition of machines and equipment.
Insurer finds agents hard to come by AIA Macau still trying to recruit 300 more agents here Vítor Quintã
vitorquinta@macaubusinessdaily.com
T
he Macau branch of American International Assurance Co (Bermuda) Ltd is struggling to increase the size of its sales team, after losing its position as market leader. A year ago AIA Macau chief executive Chris Ma Chuk Ho said the company’s goal was to “employ 360 new agents to build a quality team”. The city’s biggest insurance company by market share at the time had about 1,000 agents. “We at AIA Macau are in the same position as regards our expansion plan,” Mr Ma told Business
Daily yesterday. “We currently have just over 1,000 agents, and our plan for 2014 financial year is to engage 300 more,” he said in an e-mailed reply. Mr Ma did not disclose how many agents AIA Macau has hired so far this year. “We are on target but we have to put in a lot more resources,” the executive had told Business Daily in June. “Every single agent we recruit is fresh to the industry. We are looking for university graduates with at
AIA Macau lost its position as market leader to China Life this year
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least one year of work experience,” he stressed. Jacky Chan Wing Sing, chief executive of AIA Hong Kong and Macau, said on Tuesday the company would hire more brokers for its Hong Kong and Macau operations, Hong Kong Standard reported. AIA Macau had been market leader since the Monetary Authority of Macau began releasing data on the life insurance industry in 2003 but that changed this year. The Macau branch of China Life Insurance (Overseas) Co Ltd
became the biggest player in the life insurance market here in the first half of this year. Monetary Authority of Macau data show that the China Life branch had premium income of 1.07 billion patacas (US$134.3 million) in the first half, three times more than a year earlier, giving it 39.4 percent of the life insurance market. AIA Macau’s first-half life insurance premium income was 772.2 million patacas, 21.4 percent more than a year earlier, giving it 28.4 percent of the market.