Around 1,070 jobs expected to be generated

The winter 2005-spring 2006 Employment Barometer, the eighth issue in a series since 2002, expects local employers to increase their employment level by 1.8% or 1,070 new recruitments by the end of next month.

Around 43.2% of this increase will result in filling new positions (job creation); 39.1% to fill vacated positions; 2.4% to replace temporary absentees from work and the remaining 15.3% for other reasons.

The Employment Barometer is a labour market instrument to determine short-run labour market shortages and recruitment problems faced by employers in the local labour market. Therefore the Barometer determines which occupations are expected to be in demand in the subsequent six months.

This process is conducted every six months - in June and November. Based on the employers' demand and on the available pool of registered jobseekers at the Employment & Training Corporation (ETC), a selected number of occupations are listed to be either in shortage, balance or surplus.

Unless there are no major shocks in the international or national economy, employers tend to maintain the expected demand levels. For instance, in the last Employment Barometer (summer/autumn 2005) employers recruited a bit more than expected - 1,910 instead of the predicted 1,300.

For the winter 2005-spring 2006 survey, employers expect an overall increase of 1.8% in the number of their full- and part-time employees up to next month. The majority of employers interviewed (66.4%) expect that until next month there will be no change in their current level of demand for their products or services.

However, 18.5% expect an increase in their demand, while 15.1% expect a decrease. About 78.6% of employers interviewed claim they did not face any particular skill shortages or recruitment problems since July 2005.

Up to July this year, the most requested full-time jobs (ranked by demand frequency) include machine operators and asssemblers, waiters, executive/administratiave officers, clerks, customer care, housekeeping/room attendants, domestic helpers and cleaners, care workers (institution-based), teaching professionals (tertiary education), delivery persons, accountants and clerks.

Employers demand that prospective candidates for these occupations have a balanced mix of basic and soft skills, as well as sound academic qualifications.

For any information, phone the ETC on 2165-4940 or e-mail Imr@etc.org.mt

Edwin Camilleri, MBA (Henley), is ETC's labour market information manager