Employment had to increase by up to 70,000 people for Malta to get back on its feet, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said yesterday.

There were thousands of vacancies but employers were finding it hard to find employees, Prof, Scicluna said at the second pre-Budget public consultation meeting.

Malta needed to invest more in systems that helped employers find prospective workers that fit their job requirements. The country was among those that invested the least in job-seeking schemes, he said.

Answering a question about tackling extreme poverty brought about by disability, Prof. Scicluna said that to provide more social benefits, the Government had either to raise taxes or reallocate its resources by tracking the source of waste.

He said the Government might have to cut its expenditure in areas to increase it in others.

Another way was to increase the work force and the country had to have more gainfully occupied people to be able to get back on its feet.

Malta needed between 50,000 and 70,000 more people at work, increasing the total number of those in employment to more than 200,000 to be at par with advanced countries, he told Times of Malta after the meeting.

“The economy is moving slower than we’d like it to and slower than what the country needs for more jobs to be generated.

“If we compared ourselves to Greece, Spain and other countries doing worse than us, the situation appears to be good but we also have to look at those faring better than us,” Prof. Scicluna said.

Much fewer than half the Maltese population had a job, so there were not enough people making social welfare contributions to sustain pensioners.

In the meantime, not all parents were able to work because they did not have anyone to look after their children.

The end result was that production suffered and, in fact, the Government was planning to open free childcare centres and strengthening Klabb 3-16.

A White Paper would be issued proposing standards and administration regulations for childcare centres, he said.

Prof. Scicluna referred to the memorandum of agreement signed with a Chinese company yesterday, saying it was the best news the country had in recent days.

The deal would benefit Enemalta, which rating agencies tended to pick on as the country’s festering wound.