MACAO, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The average earnings (excluding bonuses) of full-time hotels employees in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) in the third quarter were 18,040 patacas, up by 4.9 percent year-on-year, the SAR's statistics service said recently.

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) also indicated on Thursday that the hotels had 58,255 full-time employees in the third quarter, up by 6.8 percent year-on-year.

The restaurants had 25,384 full-time employees in the third quarter, down by 1.9 percent year-on-year, with the average earnings rising by 5.5 percent to 9,790 patacas.

Manufacturing had 9,544 full-time employees, a decrease of 3.2 percent year-on-year, with their average earnings in September up by 9.5 percent to 11,750 patacas. Electricity, gas and water supply had 1,118 full-time employees, remaining unchanged from a year earlier, with the average earnings dropping by 6.0 percent to 32,190 patacas.

Child-care and elderly care had 1,473 and 810 full-time employees respectively, up by 4.5 percent and 7.7 percent year-on-year. Their average earnings in September increased by 4.4 percent and 10.9 percent respectively to 15,320 patacas and 15,610 patacas.

At the end of the third quarter, the number of vacant posts in hotels (2,436) and restaurants (2,319) rose by 215 and 147 respectively year-on-year. Moreover, 75.8 percent of the vacancies in manufacturing and 57.1 percent of those in elderly care merely required junior secondary education or lower.(1 U.S. dollar equals to 8.07 patacas)