In last week's contribution I wrote about economic priorities and I argued that jobs and unemployment are more important priorities than prices. I believe that during times of subdued demand like we are currently experiencing, the likelier it is that prices will fall. So what may appear to be such a big issue today is likely to disappear in the coming months.

Inflation is today's issue and could have been yesterday's issue, but is not expected to be tomorrow's issue. On the other hand jobs and unemployment will remain our top economic priority for some months to come.

The data available so far (the latest Labour Force Survey of the National Statistics Office refers to the first quarter of this year) is still showing positive trends. However, unemployment tends to lag behind economic downturns, as companies seek to hang on to the persons they employ for as long as possible.

Thus, when the economic upturn comes, we could still not have seen the end of the unemployment threat. This implies that we need to be ever more vigilant in not jeopardising productive jobs and in seeking ways and means of how to create new ones.

Going back to the Labour Force Survey, I repeat that the trends that have emerged for the first quarter of this year are still very positive. Our country needs to expand its labour force to generate economic wealth, and this is what appears to be happening.

The number of what are defined as inactive persons (that is neither employed nor unemployed) between the age of 16 and 64 has remained nearly static during the first quarter of this year, when compared to the same period last year. However, the share of the total number of persons within this age group has gone down, thereby raising the activity rate by just under one percentage point.

If this trend continues, we should soon be experiencing for the first time in this country a situation where the number of active persons is greater than the number of inactive persons. The net increase in the number of active persons has been channelled into employment, as the number of unemployed persons increased by 1,000, while the number of employed persons increased by 3,500.

The rate of unemployment did increase, and this shows why unemployment remains a threat. Unemployment appears to be a greater threat for males, while for females we still need to raise the participation rate significantly.

Another positive bit of information on the employment side is the average gross salary of employees. In the first quarter of this year it stood at €13,779, compared to €13,299 for the corresponding period last year. This represents an increase of 3.6 per cent. Obviously there will be parts of the labour force that experienced an even higher increase in their average salary, while others experienced a lower rate.

In terms of the nature of the jobs being created, it emerges that the bulk of the increase in jobs is full time jobs. The increase in full time jobs represents 3,300 of the 3,500 new jobs. Moreover the increase in jobs is attributable to the private sector. The economic sectors that generated the new jobs reflect very much the changing structure of the economy, with an increase in the number of self employed and an increase in the number of services related jobs.

With regard to unemployment the percentage of long-term unemployed has gone down, but we have had a worrying feature of an increase in the number if unemployed persons aged 25 to 34 years.

This data is overall undoubtedly very positive, even though I still think that it is too early to state that the international recession will not generate significant unemployment in Malta. This is why we need to maintain a constant vigilance on the issue of jobs.

I would like to borrow the statement of the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. He had stated that his government was to be tough on crime and on the causes of crime. Equally, I strongly believe that as a country we need to be tough on unemployment and the causes of unemployment. And there is no escaping the fact that it is everyone's responsibility and not just of one segment of the population.