The Maltese working week is four hours shorter today than it was 15 years ago, according to the head of the Employment and Training Corporation

Giving a snapshot of the labour force at a conference organised by the Malta Employers Association, Clyde Caruana said employees were working an average of 37 hours every week, a decrease over the 41 hours registered back in 2000.

Dr Caruana said workers were also becoming more specialised.

The number of managers had increased from 27 per cent in 2000 to nearly 40 per cent last year.

The number of employees with only an elementary level of education went down from a third of the work force to less than a quarter.

And the number of employees with a university degree shot up from less than a tenth to a quarter of the workforce.

However, Dr Carauna said, the number of people experiencing "in work poverty" had actually increased from four to nearly six per cent.

In work poverty is a state in which workers are in full time employment but unable to make ends meet.

Who makes up the Maltese workforce?

Dr Caruana said that while these were 98 per cent local  back in 2000, the figure had dropped to 89 per cent last year.

EU nationals went from making less than one per cent to seven per cent of the work force and third country nationals tripled from one to three per cent.

The workforce was also getting older.

Dr Caruana said the average age had gone up from 36 to 39. However, the aging process was slowing down. Dr Caruana said this was happening mostly because of foreign workers who were, on average, younger than their Maltese counterparts.