The data on the registered unemployed as at the end of 2009 published by the National Office of Statistics make depressing reading. It is not easy to see when the trend of rising jobless will be definitely broken, although it slowed down at the year-end. At a total of 7,680 in December those registering for work totalled 1,307 more than a year earlier.
Of the registered unemployed 6,879 were in Malta and 801 in Gozo. Of the overall total, the bulk were males, accounting for 982 of the jump, a 21.6 per cent increase. The number of registering females went up by 325, a 23.7 per cent rise.
The NSO data indicate that during 2009 the registered unemployed increased in all the age groups covered by the published statistics. In percentage terms, however - says the NSO's media release - the two tables on the margin of the detailed age distribution reported an increase of 31.5 per cent (persons aged 45 and over), and 25.7 per cent (persons aged 20 and under).
This means that entrants to the labour market are finding it more difficult to find work than hitherto, while individuals who were already in employment but for some reason or other, mainly that of becoming redundant, want a new job are hardly finding it easy to move into alternative employment.
The latter assertion has to be placed in fuller context. Quite a fair number of people who became redundant, mostly in the manufacturing and shipyard sector, have found alternative employment over the past 18 months or so. But the unemployment register reminds us that there is another side to the story. It is one of a slowdown in employment opportunities for the young, as well as for those who, because of their age, are always disadvantaged when it comes to seeking a new job.
The slowdown in new opportunities for new entrants is confirmed by the fact that in December 2009 the number of persons whose duration of unemployment was under 20 weeks increased by 513 when compared to December 2008. Again, this does not mean that the economy was not creating new opportunities for the young. It does suggest, however, that these opportunities either could not quite meet the demand for them, or that the skills required by recruiting employers were not enough in line with the skills held by young people trying to get a job.
This observation is supported by the NSO's breakdown of occupations being sought by persons registering for employment. As many as 1,051 of the 7,680 unemployed at the end of December 2009 - approximately one in seven - were seeking "elementary" occupations. In old parlance that indicates that they are very largely unskilled.
The unemployed who do not possess a good skill and jobless aged above 45 have practically always been two hard cores on the unemployment register. Their continuing presence is further confirmation, if any were needed, that extensive retraining programmes for the unemployed remain essential to bring about a better match between those in search of a job and the jobs that are being created in the expanding sub-sectors of the economy.
These sub-sectors lie in the services segment of the economy, which continues to hold its own notwithstanding the ongoing recession. There is more awareness of this fact among students in or planning to acquire secondary or tertiary education. Yet there also remain thousands of students who, if they do not quit earlier, reach the school-leaving age thoroughly unprepared with the skills and training required by the new economy. As the reliance on service activities grows, this mismatch will become more telling, necessitating further reviews of both the education system and the training schemes that also attempt to reduce the mismatch.
There are a lot of changes taking place in the education set-up. What needs to be ascertained is that they are enough in tune with the unfolding requirements of our post-manufacturing society.
The same applies to the programmes offered by the Employment and Training Corporation, the ETC. Perhaps the time has come to change its name to the Training and Employment Corporation, TEC, since without more prioritised and deeper retraining the major weakness identified in the labour force will remain an albatross round the economy's neck, both in terms of the unemployed and in terms of insufficient resources to meet the requirements of the type of activities we must continue to promote.
In the NSO's News Release on the registered unemployed as at December 2009 I found particularly depressing what was stated about jobless individuals with disability. The release said that, in the month under review, there were 449 persons with a disability on the unemployment register. This indicates, continued the release, that on a year-on-year basis the number of persons with disability registering for work increased by 150.
A 50 per cent movement is astounding, wherever it takes place. When it relates to the disabled, it is heartbreaking. I am not aware that this was brought about by any change in the disabled definition. There are several types of disablement. More information by the NSO would be welcome to allow for better analysis.