Editorial

People generally find statistics boring, unless the subject matter is of direct interest to them. Two figures that are of direct interest to those who follow the ups and downs of the manufacturing industry and of other vital sectors of the economy for that matter, are these: No fewer than 26 per cent of employers surveyed in the latest employment barometer, organised by the Employment and Training Corporation, say they face skill shortages or recruitment problems and 52 per cent of employers facing shortages/recruitment problems claim to have experienced a slowdown in their operations.

Eyebrows are bound to be raised at the sight of such figures, but as the ETC chief executive officer, John Camilleri, says, mismatches in the labour market are not a local phenomenon. Labour markets throughout the world show that a perfect labour market, where supply and demand balances each other, is a utopia. Even so, as Mr Camilleri himself admits, this does not mean the problems cannot be minimised. They can, and the corporation itself has been doing a great deal in this direction.

In fact, the corporation deserves much greater national attention - and recognition - for the work it is doing than that it has been getting so far. Unemployment is usually only discussed when the jobless figure goes up, and this is normally done in the context of political debates or calls on the government of the day for greater efforts to be made to help generate new growth and, thus, create new employment.

This is of course an essential element of any government's on-going programme but, concurrently with such work, it is important too to ensure the best possible use of human resources available for work. One report, that made by the European employment task force, has remarked that low levels of education among the workforce and skills mismatches are a matter of concern. If the situation is as bad as the employers say, it should be.

The ETC says the remark was made in the context of three key messages "for all of us to act upon" - the need to increase adaptability, to make work a real option for all and to invest more in human capital. For instance, one factor that would need to be seriously looked into is the fact that the employment rate of women in Malta is the lowest in the EU.

One problem in the labour market that is shared by many other countries is that of people abusing the system by registering for work when they are in fact engaged in profitable jobs in the black economy. Stricter conditions for registration are helping to check the abuse but the practice is as yet far from having been eliminated.

In the list of factors, which the coporation gives as causes for mismatches in the labour market, is the "willingness by a very limited number of employers to employ foreign unlicensed workers or refugees instead of Maltese on substandard wages and conditions of employment". This too ought to be vigorously checked, not only because the act is a contravention in itself, but also because in doing so these employers are unashamedly exploiting these people at their weakest moment in life.

The ETC is at present busy drafting a national action plan for employment as required by the European Employment Strategy. According to the corporation, if the island were to manage to seriously implement such plan annually, it would bring about a silent revolution in the labour market. It is well worth trying.