The government said this afternoon that its jobs plan was bearing fruit thanks to growth in the private sector.

It also claimed that the former government engaged an average of seven full time workers every day in the public service while it was in a caretaker capacity before the general election.

In a statement, the government noted that according to official job figures for August, the number of full-time jobs totalled 157,730, an increase of almost 4,000 compared to the same month in the previous year. It said an average of 19 new full time jobs were created ever since the new administration took office.

The government denied opposition claims that jobs had increased because of public service employment. Of the 1,060 jobs in the public sector, 710 were engagements made between November 2012 and February 2013 by the former government at the height of the election campaign.

In January 2013, when the electoral campaign officially kicked off, the public sector engaged 559 full-time workers.

Under this government, the jobs growth was in the private sector, with  growth in August alone being seven times higher in the private sector than in August last year. In July and August this year, 186 jobs were created in the private sector compared to 28 in the same months last year, the government said.

The rate of job creation in Malta was the third highest in the EU, the governemnt pointed out.