Malta still the laggard in jobs

Nearly half of Malta’s potential workers are not active in any type of economic activity, according to the latest employment rate figures published in Brussels yesterday.

Eurostat data for 2009 reveal Malta is not managing to create the number of jobs its needs to raise its low employment rate.

The percentage of those aged 15-64 years in employment in 2009 stood at 54.9 per cent, the lowest rate in the EU and almost 10 percentage points less than the average in the eurozone (64.7 per cent).

More worrying is the fact that Malta’s employment rate in 2009, albeit a recession year, dropped when compared to 2008, when it was 55.3 per cent, and was nearly back to the 2007 level of 54.6 per cent. The rate also fell across the EU.

In 2009 Malta again held on to the record of having the lowest female employment level in the EU, although in this area the situation is slowly improving.

The percentage of working females aged 15-64 last year stood at 37.7 per cent, a slight improvement of 0.3 per cent on 2008.

This is, however, more than 20 percentage points less than the eurozone average which in 2009 stood at 58.3 per cent.

On the other hand, Malta fares slightly better than the EU average when it comes to the male employment rate, which stood at 71.5 per cent in 2009. In the euro area it stood at 71.2 per cent.

Still, it seems fewer Maltese men were interested in working or were unable to find a job, as the male employment rate fell by a full percentage point when compared to 2008.

Eurostat said that according to the Labour Force Survey – which is not as precise as a headcount performed in Malta by the Employment and Training Corporation – 108,000 males and 54,000 females worked in 2009. Meanwhile, 10.8 per cent had a part-time job as their main source of employment (19.5 per cent in the eurozone).

The majority of Maltese workers, 38 per cent, had skilled non-manual jobs, while 28.7 per cent had low skilled non-manual jobs. At the same time 12.1 per cent of Malta’s employees had elementary occupations.

On an EU level, Eurostat said the employment rate fell when compared to 2008, probably due to the recession. It stood at 64.6 per cent down from 65.9 a year earlier.

In 2009, the employment rate for persons aged 15-64 was above 70 per cent in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Germany, and was below 60 per cent in Malta, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Poland and Spain.

Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden registered the highest rates of female employment, all above 70 per cent. Next after Malta with the lowest female rates were Italy, at 46.4 per cent, and Greece at 48.9 per cent.

Reacting to the figures, the Nationalist Party issued a statement insisting government initiatives were reaping positive results because the participation of women and people between the ages of 55 and 64 had increased.

“Every analysis should take into consideration that the survey includes secondary school students, young people who choose to continue studying and elderly people who choose not to work because they retired.”