Despite the general gloom surrounding the regional economy, there was one sunny spell in Macau last week when Melco Crown Entertainment held a recruitment fair for its City of Dreams resort.
Even before the economic crisis, casino recruitment fairs tended to attract droves of locals. The reason was operators tended to pay much better wages than any other local businesses.
It may be a sign of the times that the City of Dreams fair was also mobbed, but this time it may be more in desperation than in high expectation. It’s unlikely in present trading conditions the company will be able to provide the kinds of pay and conditions originally offered to staff at MPEL’s Crown Macau venue when it opened in May 2007.
City of Dreams, due to open on Cotai later this year, has 7,000 positions available. The organisers of the two-day recruitment event at Macau Tower said nearly 9,000 people registered online or by phone before the doors even opened.
