Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
Malta with lowest employment rate in the EU
Malta registered the lowest employment rate among the EU member states last year, according to new figures published by Eurostat yesterday.
Malta's poor results are heavily affected by a traditional low female employment rate.
Based on a labour force survey, which includes potential employees between 15 and 64, only 55.7 per cent of Malta's population within this age bracket was in employment last year. This is the lowest level of employment in the EU where the average last year stood at 65.4 per cent.
Malta had by far the lowest female employment rate, 36.9 per cent, of all women aged 15-64.
When it comes to male employment, Malta scores relatively well, registering an employment rate of 74.2 per cent, which is higher than the EU 27 average of 72.5 per cent.
According to Eurostat, 11.1 per cent of all those in employment in Malta said that their primary job was part-time.
Overall, the EU statistics office said that the employment rate for persons aged 15 to 64 was above 70 per cent in Denmark (77.1 per cent), the Netherlands (76 per cent) and Sweden and below 60 per cent in Malta (55.7 per cent), Poland (57 per cent) and Hungary (57.3 per cent).
Denmark (73.2 per cent), Sweden (71.8 per cent) and the Netherlands (69.6 per cent) registered the highest rates of female employment in 2007 and Malta (36.9 per cent), Italy (46.6 per cent) and Greece (47.9 per cent) had the lowest.
Malta also recorded the greatest difference between male and female employment (39 per centage points), followed by Greece (27 percentage points) and Italy (24 percentage points).
The employment rate for those aged 55 to 64 was highest in Sweden (70 per cent) and lowest in Malta at 28.3 per cent.
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Johanna Scicluna
Jul 24th 2008, 19:10
Contrary to statistics, I believe that in Malta we have a very high rate of women who work, but their work is not declared for various reasons:
i) Women who daily contribute in their family business, but they do not pay NI nor taxes.
ii) Women who work at least 20 hours a week as home helpers, charging between 5 and 7 Euros an hour. I can assure you that there are hundreds of them, and they never issue a VAT receipt, nor pay tax nor NI.
iii) Several women who work in various shops and outlets for less then 19 hours a week and are not registered.
iv) Several other women, who sew and charge quite a bit of money, but again they do not issue receipts etc...
I'm sure one can think of more jobs / unregistered workers!!!!!!
And I forgot to mention, these families claim children allowances and social benefits forked out by decent citizens ...... This is MALTA!!!!!!!
Johanna Scicluna
Jul 24th 2008, 18:57
@ Paul Barrett
'Before you can send your wife or girlfriend out to work' - I'm a mother and wife and I work not because I was sent but because I wanted to. My husband works from home and so we adjust our time according to the kids needs and still enjoy family life!!
Paul Barrett
Jul 23rd 2008, 13:56
This article can be read two ways.
Retirement age in Malta is 61 therefore to compare figures with countries that have a retirement age of 64 or more is irrelevant.
Before you can send your wife or girlfriend out to work, there has to be a job suitable for her (as well as a job for the male worker) which allows some form of family life). Apart from which, working at home and supporting the male worker, looking after the children, cooking and cleaning is very much underestimated.
It is called quality of life - work until you drop or live in Malta and enjoy a little bit more family life and time in retirement.
Well done Malta - Best figures in Europe.
ernest causon
Jul 23rd 2008, 10:40
When compiling these statistics, was the fact that few in Malta keep working till the age of 64 been taken into consideration??