Only 10 per cent of the 8,000 people who were registering as unemployed in 2013 ended up on the government payroll, ruling out public sector recruitment as the cause of labour shortages, the executive chair of JobsPlus Clyde Caruana told Times Talk.

Last week, the Malta Employers’ Association had blamed pre-election recruitment as one of the reasons that the private sector was having to resort to foreigners, which it said now made up a third of all workers in the sector.

Read: ‘Critically scarce’ labour market in spite of 40,000 foreigners

Mr Caruana said the situation was far simpler: the economy is growing much faster than the supply of local candidates – including women – who are seeking work.

Learn more about the current and future situation of the jobs sector in Times Talk, uploaded on Wednesday.

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