The number of people employed with the government or its entities has continued to grow, according to new statistics.

National Statistics Office figures show that the number of additional employees in the public sector since Labour’s return to power surpassed the 2,000 mark last April, standing at 2,042.

By March – exactly a year since Labour came to power in 2013 – the figure had already surged to 1,879, by far the largest rise in the past six years. The figures represent the net increase and do not include the workers recruited to replace public servants who retire, estimated to number 1,500 per year.

In the month preceding the MEP elections in May, the public sector recruited 170 new people, in a trend that runs counter to a government pledge to Brussels to reduce the number of government employees by 500 in 2014.

The NSO said that in March 2013, 41,507 were employed with the public sector but that reached 43,549 by the end of April.

Conservative calculations made by Times of Malta show that the public sector wage bill is expected to rise by €20 million a year.

Both the Malta Employers Association and the Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise have harshly criticised the growth in public sector employment, insisting that the government should be moving in the opposite direction.

The Finance Ministry has so far refused to give the precise cost.

Meanwhile, the NSO statistics show a 3.4 per cent increase in full-time employment in April when compared to the same month in 2013, while registered part-time employment as a primary job rose by 6.1 per cent.

The labour supply, excluding part-timers, increased by 3.3 per cent to 168,849. This was mainly the result of a 5,339 increase in the full-time gainfully employed population and a rise of 115 in the registered unemployed.

The full-time self-employed rose by 435 and employees by 4,904. Full-time employment among males and females went up by 2.5 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively over 2013 levels.