Labour survey puts jobless rate at 7.2 per cent

Half the Maltese people over 15 years old were inactive in the first three months of the year, a labour force survey by the National Statistics Office has shown.

In the first quarter, 70.4 per cent of females and 28.8 per cent of males were inactive.

The unemployment rate stood at 7.2 per cent. The mean age of unemployed males was 32 and that of females 25.

Among the unemployed, more than 55 per cent had been looking for a job for more than a year while 27.2 per cent had been looking for a job for less than five months.

The NSO said that the activity rate between January and March stood at 58.7 per cent. The activity rate is defined as the number of persons aged between 15 - 64 years in the labour force as a percentage of the working population of the same age group.

The statistics office said the total number of employed people in the first quarter was estimated at over 148,600, and 18.9 per cent of these were between 15 - 24 years old. It said the mean age of employed males stood at 40 while that of females was 34.

The number of people engaged in manufacturing was 19.4 per cent, while another 15.4 per cent worked in the wholesale and retail trade. The most common categories of occupations were service workers and shop and sales workers.

The average gross salary of employees was estimated at Lm5,100, with the best paid employees working as senior officials and managers, whose gross annual salary amounted to an average of Lm7,845.

The NSO said that in the first quarter of this year 17.8 per cent of males were self employed, while self employed women made up 6.5 per cent of the total working female population.

The private sector employed 66.8 per cent of the population while the government employed 21.4 per cent. The rest of the workers were employed in the public sector and independent statutory bodies.