Macao logged a total of 92,161 immigrant workers, or non-local workers, at the end of last year, increasing by 8.2 percent over the same period of 2007, the Macao Daily Post reported on Wednesday.

The number of immigrant workers in Macao started to decrease in October last year, and the figure of last December was the lowest since March 2008, according to the daily, which quoted statistics from the Labor Affairs Bureau (DSAL) of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

At the end of 2008, workers from the Chinese mainland accounted for 56.4 percent of all imported labor, while those from Philippines and Hong Kong SAR reached 11,806 and 11,221 respectively, according to the DSAL figures.

Analyzed by sectors, immigrant workers employed by local gaming industry, the pillar of Macao's economy, dropped 52.1 percent year- on-year to 10,723 (including 4,017 construction workers) at the end of last year, the DSAL said. The latest figures from the SAR government showed that imported labor accounted for some 18.7 percent of Macao's population of 557, 400 residents, when calculated with the figures of last September.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2009)