Members of the Macau Federation of Trade Unions’ Women Committee said yesterday that 73 percent of local women are stressed about their employment situation.
The committee presented the findings of its “2021 Macau women’s life and employment situation survey” during a press conference at the Fai Chi Kei Family and Community Integrated Service Centre.
According to a statement provided during the press conference, the survey took place from February 27 to March 4. The statement said the survey was released on social media and that it received 1,186 responses. The statement pointed out that the survey was anonymous.
According to the finding, 43.17 percent (512 respondents) were “rather worried” about their employment situation, while 30.1 percent (357 respondents) were “very worried”. Only 18.21 percent (216 respondents) said that they were “not too” worried, while 6.75 percent (80 respondents) said they were “not worried at all” about their employment situation.
The findings show that 54.3 percent (644 respondents) were employed at the time of the survey, while around 24 percent (289 respondents) were unemployed, 9.36 percent (111 respondents) were looking for a job and about 2 percent (24 respondents) chose the “other” category.
The findings show that around 17 percent of the respondents had a monthly salary of between 10,000 and 14,999 patacas in the past year, while 16.9 percent earnt between 15,000 and 20,000 patacas a month. According to the findings, 15.6 percent of the respondents said that they had a monthly salary of below 4,350 patacas, while 14.5 percent of earnt between 20,000 and 29,999 patacas per month.
The survey also showed that around 35.2 percent of the respondents found their daily lives “stressful” with around 32 percent finding their daily lives “very stressful”. The findings also showed that around 68 percent of the respondents thought their financial situation was the “main source of stress” in their daily lives, whereas around 45 percent were stressed out “taking care of children or the elderly”. The survey also said that around 31.5 percent of the respondents were stressed about their “health condition”, while 25.21 percent found their “family relations” stressful.
The survey also found that over 90 percent of the respondents thought the government should launch its third phase of the financial support scheme.
Directly elected Legislator Lei Cheng I said during the press conference that she wished the Legislative Assembly (AL) would discuss financial support measures, adding that the novel coronavirus pandemic has been affecting many women financially. She pointed out that according to the survey a lot of women are anxious about their employment situation, and she hoped that the government would strengthen policies to protect women’s careers.
Lei also said that the survey showed that many women thought having another round of the government’s consumption smart card subsidy scheme was “feasible”, adding however, that some unemployed residents wanted other forms of financial support. She stressed that she hoped the legislature could discuss different forms of financial assistance to help various groups of residents.
Legislator Lei Cheng I (left) and Leong Sun Iok pose at the press conference about the findings of the “2021 Macau women’s life and employment situation survey” at Fai Chi Kei Family and Community Integrated Service Centre. Courtesy: TDM
