The increase of nearly 2,000 people employed by the government since Labour came to power will set public coffers back some €20 million a year, Times of Malta has calculated.

The bonanza of government jobs during the first year of a new Labour administration runs contrary to a government plan sent to Brussels last October, in which it pledged to reduce the number of public sector employees by 500 during 2014 as a deficit-reduction measure.

The latest official figures show that public sector employment between March 2013 and last March rose by 1,879 workers: by far the largest increase in the past six years.

The previous Nationalist government failed to stick to the letter of its employment reduction policy every year, increasing the number of employees by nearly 900 over a period of five years.

However, Labour has increased it by a further 1,879 in just 12 months.

Asked for the cost of these new jobs from the public purse, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance said the information “was still being gathered and will be provided at a later date.”

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