The Prime Minister's much touted claim that the government has 20,000 new jobs since 2008 is nothing more than a myth, MEP Edward Scicluna said this morning.

In a statement, he said that the government's claim was exposed as a myth in replies to a series of parliamentary questions he tabled.

Prof. Scicluna said the European Commission told him that neither Eurostat nor the national statistical bodies collected data on 'new jobs' since the European System of National Accounts did not recognise it as a measurable statistic.

In its reply, the Commission stated that "the Commission (Eurostat) and National Statistical Institutes collect and publish harmonised quarterly and annual statistics on the number of persons employed. Persons employed and jobs do not have 1-to-1 relation and an employed person may have more than one job".

Prof Scicluna said: "What prompted me to ask these questions was the surprisingly unorthodox formula presented as to how 'new jobs' were calculated for the Prime Minister. The inclusion of redundancies seemed to me highly questionable and bordering on the downright unacceptable. But I wanted the confirmation of the Commission on this."