The Minister for Education and Employment, Evarist Bartolo, said in Parliament yesterday that the achievements by Malta in the area of youth employment have placed the country just behind Germany in the number of youths currently in employment.
He said this was a major leap in employment for this group, with the vast majority being jobs the private sector.
The number of full-time employees at the end of July 2015 had increased by four per cent, and all the growth in employment had come from the services market. He said this was possible due to new investment, economic expansion and an active labour market policy.
Childcare facilities and breakfast clubs were releasing women for the job market.
The current major problem being faced was that companies were not finding sufficient workers. To this end, the skills deficit still had to be addressed, Mr Bartolo said.
The minister was speaking during a discussion on the estimates of the Employment and Training Corporation.
Two major achievements for ETC this year were making the workload of job advisers more manageable, so that the help given would be more useful, and the timely payment for trainers and mentors
The corporation, he said, was run efficiently and on non-partisan lines. The new and updated vision of the ETC sought to give a more personalised approach to the services provided to job seekers, he added.
Mr Bartolo said that two major achievements for ETC this year were making the workload of job advisers more manageable, so that the help given would be more useful, and the timely payment for trainers and mentors.
He said this was part of a restructuring process aimed at keeping the corporation relevant.
Opposition spokesperson on employment Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said the ETC annual report gave rise not only to an assessment of the operations in the corporation but also to an evaluation of the job situation.
In the latter case, he said, updated statistics were required and these appeared to be missing in some cases.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that there also seemed to be a mismatch between the sectors in the economy which were performing and those in which jobs were on the decline.
He also said there was a need for a serious debate on the issue of the poverty risk highlighted by the recent Caritas report, which findings were underlined in the President’s call for a national debate on the need for just apportionment of wealth.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said an analysis of the statistics confirmed the four per cent increase in employment but said that 20 per cent was in the government sector, and not the much lower figure being claimed by the government.
He asked for a better analysis of those struck off the register of employment so that a realistic solution was arrived at. A similar analysis should be made on precarious employment, given that part-time employment still seemed to be very strong, particularly among women.
He said that 26,000 non-Maltese were active in the job market and they have helped swell the employment figures.
Parliamentary Secretary for the disabled Dr Justyne Caruana said that the ETC was now performing very well in the policy of inclusion and the disabled were actively approaching the corporation for assistance.