The Employment Training Corporation is to be called Jobs+ following legislation currently before Parliament.

Education and Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo said the name change stemmed from an agreement reached between the social partners and the political parties before the general election for an Active Labour Market Policy.

The main points of the agreement was for the launching of an active labour market policy action committee and actions to grow the economy, create jobs with proper conditions, and ensure that all sections of society benefit from growth.  

Mr Bartolo noted that as of March this year, the number of unemployed had dropped to 4,033, 32% less than in March 2015. There were 7,250 unemployed in March 2013. These, he said, were remarkable figures.

In the last two years, private sector employment was up by 11,000 and the proportion of public sector employment within total employment was down by 0.8%.

Mr Bartolo said the country continued to face a major challenge to narrow the skills deficit by ensuring that its workers were sufficiently trained for the opportunities which were coming their way. 

Opposition spokesman Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said there needed needed to be a discussion on the nature of the newly created jobs, especially because a very large proportion of women finding full time jobs were in the lowest levels of working condition.

The ultimate aim, he said, was be to raise living standards, but according to a recent report, because of the skills deficit, it would take another 33 years for local standards to reach the EU average living standard. 

Dr Mifsud Bonnici underlined the need for planning for Malta's long-term employment needs, to reduce the need to engage foreign labour. 

It was also important that, as far as possible, Maltese employees were not undercut by foreigners. A case in point was in the employment of security officers at Heritage Malta, with more overtime offered to the foreigners because it worked out cheaper.