Employment figures have shot up mainly due to an increase in jobs in the civil service, the Opposition said yesterday.

It was reacting to figures released by the National Statistics Office which showed that full-time employment had increased by 3.3 per cent last December over the same month in 2012.

In a statement, the Nationalist Party said the Labour government was using the civil service to “hide its job creation problem”.

The figures show an increase of 1,411 jobs within the civil service. This, the PN said, underscored the government’s inability to create enough jobs.

“The Labour government is hiding its job creation problem by increasing the number of jobs in government for those in the inner circle,” they said.

The NSO revealed a noticeable shift in public employment trends away from construction and towards public administration and defence. In fact, the number of civil servants working in those sectors increased from 10,508 to 11,877.

According to NSO figures, while employment has increased, so too has the labour supply.

Figures compiled by the Employment and Training Corporation showed that over the year, it shot up by 3.5 per cent to 165,064.

In a joint statement, PN deputy leader Mario de Marco, Finance spokesman Tonio Fenech and economic growth spokeswoman Kirsty Debono welcomed the increase in employment but expressed concern that not enough jobs were being created.

Pointing to an increase in the number of registered unemployed by 590, the Opposition said the employment problem was amplified by a rise in the number registering for jobs.

The figures, they said, confirmed the European Commission’s and Opposition’s warnings that not enough jobs were being created.

Last week European Commission presidential candidate Jean Claude Juncker expressed concern over the island’s unemployment rate.