Two percentage point increase in employment rate of women

There was a slight increase in the employment rate of women over the past seven years, rising from 33 per cent in 2000 to 35 per cent in 2006, when over half of the total population in Malta was female, the National Statistics Office said.

To mark Woman's Day, on Saturday, the NSO said the trend observed in the seven-year span under review indicated that women are more likely to be engaged in the labour force than was the case in the past. This is reinforced by the fact that there was an increase in the number of women with a tertiary level of education, up from five per cent in 2000 to 10 per cent in 2006.

In 2006, the NSO said, 65 per cent of men were employed as against 29 per cent in the case of women. Men are more likely to work in the private sector than women, who were less likely to occupy managerial posts.

The gender pay gap in 2006 stood at three per cent in Malta, the lowest among all EU 27 countries, whose average stood at 15.

In 2005, there were 8,437 persons working on a voluntary basis in social welfare-oriented non-profit organisations.

Women made up 62 per cent of total workers and 60 per cent of total volunteers.