In Macau, a jewellery shop salesperson must be at least age 22, but no more than 28. Or so the classified advertisements stipulate. A souvenir salesperson should be no more than 36. A credit card loan officer must be between 25 and 36.
An office worker must be no older than 28.
Those are requirements stated in the recruitment announcements of Lisboa Holdings, a retail conglomerate headed by tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun's brother-in-law.
Reading the classified section is a slap in the face for Woo Pou-fan, a 40-year-old job seeker. 'Every day I grow older, so day by day there is less chance for me to find a job,' she said.
Despite attending a government-sponsored job retraining programme - euphemistically named a 'culture class' - Ms Woo has never received a follow-up call after attending a job interview. The former garment factory secretary suspects the problem is her age, but she has no way to prove it.
'Nowadays people think anyone with arms and legs can find a job at the casinos, but that's not true,' Ms Woo said.
It seems nonsensical for any able-bodied worker in Macau to be unemployed at a time when the city's largest employers are complaining of a labour shortage and pleading with the government to relax restrictions on importing labour.
