Men dominate the self-employed sector

Self-employment in Malta is largely a male domain - 13,705 men (89.3 per cent) and 1,650 women were self-employed in June, according to data provided by the Central Statistics Office.

The number of self-employed who do not employ anyone else -15,355 - amounts to 10.4 per cent of the labour force in Malta.

Statistics issued by the NSO show that most self-employed are under 44 - actually 63.4 per cent of self-employed fall between the 15-44 age bracket.

Seventy-seven per cent of self-employed have only attended either primary schooling or general secondary education. Among self-employed women, there is a relatively higher proportion who have followed higher education.

The NSO said that in general, many of the self-employed were found in the wholesale and retail trade.

An analysis of the occupational background of self-employed indicates that most of them are either crafts and related trade or service workers and shop and market sales workers.

While self-employed men tend to be distributed more evenly across the occupational structure, the female self-employed are highly concentrated in the category of service workers and shop and market sales workers.

The large majority of self-employed, especially men, are occupied on a full-time basis. On the other hand, there are many part-timers among self-employed women, the NSO said.

The NSO said that self-employed people who were also employers were also predominantly men. As a matter of fact, 5,553 men (89.8 per cent) and 631 women (10.2 per cent) were found to be employers in June.

Employers tend to be distributed across the various age groups.

Most employers are involved in the wholesale and retail trade.

Almost all employers are occupied on a full-time basis (97.5 per cent).