Almost half of those on the unemployment register are seeking jobs that do not exist, according to the head of the government’s employment agency.

As a result, hundreds are “stuck” on the unemployment register.

Employment and Training Corporation chairman Clyde Caruana, an economist, said there were about 350 people on the register seeking cleaning jobs when the country “imported” about 500 foreign cleaners.

As things stand, work does not pay and people prefer to remain on benefits

“The problem is that most of those seeking a cleaning job want to work in offices but the demand is for hotels,” Mr Caruana said.

He was speaking to Times of Malta in the wake of the Prime Minister’s comment on Sunday that there were many looking for a job as petrol pump attendants when there were only an average of 10 vacancies a year in that category.

“I estimate that nearly half the job seekers are after a job for which there is no demand,” Mr Caruana said, adding that employment opportunities were being shunned by the Maltese.

Such a situation is possible under the present set-up but is expected to change when the new employment policy is released in the coming weeks.

Mr Caruana said the policy would include a cut-off date, after which people would not be able to register for a job for which there was no demand. “The ETC will be guiding people as to what the job market has to offer.” Unemployment increased to almost 8,000 despite an economy that last year generated almost 5,000 new jobs.

Some government exponents have justified the state of affairs on the economy’s inability to cope with a growing demand for jobs that is fuelled by policies to encourage people to work, particularly women.

Mr Caruana begs to differ. Growing unemployment was not the result of more people wanting to work or not enough jobs being created, he said.

“It is not the case that unemployment is going up because there is an increase in supply or a drop in demand. Despite what some people have argued, including government exponents, the increase in unemployment is not a result of more women seeking jobs.”

He said that since the start of this legislature there was a drastic drop in the number of unemployed who were struck off the register. Without elaborating, he noted that this contributed to more people remaining on the register. This, coupled with those seeking phantom jobs, helped push up the figure. Mr Caruana said he would prove this with facts and figures when the employment policy was released.

He also disagreed with an observation made by former Nationalist minister Michael Falzon in The Sunday Times of Malta that higher unemployment was a result of Labourites expecting a government job after the election.

Mr Falzon argued it was an open secret that Labour ministers were inundated with people asking for jobs with the State and their only hope of this happening was if they registered as unemployed.

While not excluding the pheno-menon, Mr Caruana insisted it was not widespread and could not be blamed for the increased number of unemployed.

A more realistic concern was the short distance between the money paid by the minimum wage and unemployment benefits, he added.

“As things stand, work does not pay and people prefer to remain on benefits. The government is expected to address this by boosting the income of low wage earners without increasing the minimum wage,” Mr Caruana said.

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