Malta is doing well in terms of job vacancies, according to Eurostat, which also reports that the island had the highest increase within the EU in the last quarter of 2014.

At the same time, labour costs grew more than the EU average.

Eurostat said the job vacancy rate in the last three months of last year rose in 20 of the 28 EU member states, remained stable in five and fell in two when compared to the same period of 2013.

The largest increases were registered in Malta (1.2 per cent), the Czech Republic (+0.7 per cent), Germany and the UK (both 0.4 per cent).

Decreases were recorded for Belgium (0.5 per cent) and Austria (0.1 per cent).

In the last quarter of 2014, the highest increase in the annual labour costs was in the construction sector, at 4.1%

On average, the job vacancy rate in the euro area was 1.8 per cent in the period under review, up from 1.6 per cent recorded both in the previous quarter and in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Meanwhile, Eurostat said Malta registered a 2.0 per cent increase in its annual labour costs when compared to the same quarter of 2013. This exceeded the EU average, which, over the same period, grew by 1.4 per cent.

It said the highest increase in the annual labour costs was in the construction sector (4.1 per cent) followed by services (2.4) per cent.

However labour costs in industry slipped by 2.2 per cent.