In one list of election campaign promises, the Labour Party gives one that is quite intriguing: guaranteed jobs or training for the young.

Now, the Nationalist Party has also given a number of intriguing pledges, some of which have already been commented upon. Its commitment, for instance, to create 25,000 new jobs, if elected, is not far off from Labour’s magic-wand promises.

True, in the time of the PN in government unemployment has been stemmed to acceptable levels and a good part of the credit for this is due to the administration for its work and policies.

But the way politicians speak gives the impression that it is just the Government that creates jobs. This is not the case and politicians ought to measure their words when they come to talk about this as, indeed, they should when they speak on other matters as well.

But, short of employing people directly in the administration or in parastatal companies or corporations, as has been done before under both PN and PL administrations, how can any administration here or anywhere else for that matter guarantee jobs?

It is not the first time such an undertaking has been given but the pledge ought to be dismissed as a myth. Training the young for jobs can of course be done in various ways, and, indeed, this is being done already but political parties ought to stop talking about guaranteeing jobs.

A government may very well aim at raising employment levels and establishing targets helps spur continued action in the promotion of the right economic environment for the creation of jobs.

Intervening directly to help save jobs when firms find themselves in difficulties, as the Nationalist government did in a crisis, is quite laudable. The Nationalists credit themselves with having saved no fewer than 5,000 jobs through the immediate help the Government gave to a number of firms finding themselves in difficulties. But, again, neither the Nationalists nor Labour can guarantee jobs, unless, as already remarked, they are prepared to burden the country with an additional workforce on its payroll, which is highly inadvisable.

The fact that Malta has been able to ride the economic storm is no guarantee either that the island is shielded from the effects of the difficult economic climate in other European Union member countries. It is not and if unit costs in industry rise and exports become uncompetitive, the existing difficulties will multiply.

The latest news coming from Europe is far from heartening.

According to the latest official information, the eurozone slipped deeper than expected into recession in the fourth quarter last year. It marked the currency bloc’s first full year in which no quarter produced growth, extending back to 1995. For the year as a whole, gross domestic product fell by 0.5 per cent. Economic output in the 17-country region fell by 0.6 per cent in the last quarter.

However, many in Malta still seem to be blissfully completely detached from what is happening on the continent, very often giving the impression that the island is impregnable.

Perhaps this can all be attributed to the politicians’ hype but the sooner the election is over, the better it will be for the country to get back on track, not for the new administration to go all out to implement promises that may make no difference to the people’s quality of life but, rather, to build up the island’s capacity to resist further the effects of the economic difficulties experienced abroad.