When, some time ago, the Nationalist Party accused the government that it was not doing enough to generate new jobs, it retorted with arguments meant to prove the opposite.

The point the Opposition has been making is that the rate of job creation is not keeping up with the labour supply and, as a result, unemployment is growing.

According to the latest official figures, unemployment in January rose by 646, to 7,789, not an insignificant figure. A worrying point is that the rise is spread among all age groups.

When it sought to deflect mounting criticism over its record so far, the government spoke of the increase in the number of gainfully occupied in the first six months of this administration compared with the much slower rise in the last six months of the previous one.

However, as the government pats itself on the back, others are not convinced at all about the rate of progress being made in job creation.

It looks as if the country is already counting the cost of the time the government has been frittering away on unnecessary controversies, particularly on the citizenship scheme.

Joseph Muscat might have been thinking outside the box when he came up with the scheme but, through the clumsy way he handled it, he gave the impression that Malta’s economic future depends on it. In its enthusiasm to stress the benefits the island stands to benefit from the scheme, the government blurred the island’s economic vision, at least in the eyes of economic observers abroad.

One interpretation of the government’s move was that the island needed the money badly because it was facing a financial crisis. However wrong this is and however much the government denies this, it will now take a long time to erase such an impression. This is the greatest harm done to the island. With the fury of the debate now over, attention is fast turning to unemployment, a matter that also stirs quite a lot of political emotions and never-ending tit-for-tat arguments.

Industrial production is down and foreign direct investment inflows in the first half of last year have only turned “marginally positive” after having been on a downward trend since 2010.

This is not good enough, even though the finance minister said that this turnaround suggested that Malta’s economic stability and growth potential was attracting back investment by foreign investors.

The employers’ complaint about lack of consultation with the social partners on priority issues is also disturbing. It ironically comes at a time when the government is trying to project itself as one that listens. The question is: to whom it is listening exactly? The record number of projects it says Malta Enterprise has approved in the first 10 months is impressive but it would be wise not to count chickens before they are hatched. In the time of the Malta Development Corporation, Labour used to play down, if not ridicule, project-approval figures.

The money the government expects to get from the sale of Maltese citizenship, or the “pennies from heaven”, as one correspondent to this newspaper has hyperbolically described the expected flow of income from the scheme, would no doubt help grease the wheels of the economy and create new jobs when the funds come. But, however welcome and needed such funds are and however fruitful other get-rich-quick schemes could be, it would be best for the island to keep fashioning a sound, diversified economy.