As the economy develops, more and more Maltese are moving into executive posts, abandoning roles at the other end of the job market, according to a report issued by the Central Bank of Malta.
The influx of foreign workers is having a clear impact, as those engaged in elementary occupations and in clerical and support duties have fallen from 24.6 in 2000 to 19.8 per cent in 2014. During the same period, the proportion of managers, professional and technical staff rose from 32.5 per cent in 2000 to 38.7 per cent in 2014.
Foreign workers are employed at the extremes of the labour market: the higher end where skills are scarce (predominantly EU workers) and the lower end, where jobs are no longer attractive for the Maltese (predominantly non-EU).
In fact, the probability that an EU worker is a manager or clerical support worker is more than twice that for a Maltese – but the odds that a third-country worker has an elementary occupation are 4.5 times that for a Maltese.
In 2000, there were close to 900 EU citizens working full-time and/or part-time in Malta
The report on the economic impact of foreign workers, prepared by CBM chief economics officer Aaron Grech, shows that in 2000 there were close to 900 EU citizens working full-time and/or part-time in Malta, significantly less than the amount of third-country nationals. By the time of Malta’s accession to the EU, the number of third-country nationals had risen by 35.8 per cent and still outnumbered the number of workers from the EU. But three years after, this had changed, with workers from EU countries overtaking those from third-countries.
By 2014, there were 15,500 EU citizens, and just 6,190 third-country nationals.
The jobs taken up by the foreign workforce has also changed significantly. Whereas nearly 50 per cent of the rise in EU nationals working in Malta involved managers, professionals and technical staff, less than 30 per cent of the rise in third-country nationals was in these categories.
The percentage of foreigners in the workforce has risen from just 1.3 per cent in 2000 to over 10 per cent now, above the eurozone average of eight per cent.
However, foreign workers are needed to keep the economy running. In the absence of immigration, in the last eight years, Malta’s working age population would have declined by one per cent, instead of rising by three per cent. And ETC data suggests that, between 2010 and 2014, the number of full-time and part-time jobs rose by over 25,500, which was nearly equally divided between Maltese and foreign workers, the report pointed out.
What impact do foreigners have on social services?
1,500 foreign patients used Maltese hospitals in 2008, rising to 2,300 in 2012.
1,650 foreign students went to school in Malta in 2008, rising to 2,000 in 2012.
Only 130 migrants receive unemployment benefits.
In the meantime, foreign workers account for 10.1 per cent of all personal income tax and national insurance contributions.
The amount of direct tax revenue collected from foreign workers increased nine-fold between 2000 and 2014, while that from Maltese workers doubled.