In the 12 months leading to November last year, public sector employment grew by five per cent compared to a 3.3 per cent employment rate of growth in the private sector, PN shadow ministers Mario de Marco and Therese Comodini Cachia said.

This, they said, was according to statistics published today by the National Statistics Office.

In a statement this afternoon, they said public sector employment was shrinking until 2012 while new jobs were being created by the private sector.

While welcoming the increase in jobs in the private sector, the Opposition called on the government to adhere to the commitment it made to the European Union in October 2013, when it pledged to:

 “...restart the practice of restricting recruitment and reducing public sector employment through attrition. In particular Government is committed to restrict the replacement of retirees and resignations by a ratio of 2:3. Health and education will be excluded from this exercise. It is to be noted that every year there are roughly 1,500 public sector employees who retire or resign from their posts. This policy would effectively reduce public sector employment by around 500 per annum. This policy will be reviewed every year. Potential savings from this policy could amount to around €4.9 million in 2014 and additional savings in subsequent years.”

Rather than restricting recruitment in the public sector, government recruited more than 6,000 persons in the past two years reflecting an average increase of 10 per cent, Dr de Marco and Dr Comodini Cachia said.

They said that rather than save €4.9 million, the government increased the public sector wage bill by €126 million. This increase in recurrent expenditure was an anti-social financial burden on families and to cover this increase, each and every Maltese person, irrespective of income or age, would have to fork out €750 by the end of the legislature.

“This is a cost burden that is being borne by all.

“In addition to this, in the last budget, government introduced 400 new taxes which continue to increase the burden on the Maltese families,” they said.