Labour report points to 'alarming' unemployment

The employment situation in the country was "stable" insofar as new job creation was concerned but somewhat alarming when it came to unemployment, a study on the employment situation in Malta commissioned by the Labour Party has concluded.

The study, presented to the media yesterday by Labour leader Alfred Sant, based its findings on the National Statistics Office's labour force survey for 2001, 2002 and 2003.

The study said that the number of people in employment rose by 1,860 between March 2001 and December 2003. This increase masked a wide disparity between the male sector of the employed population and the female sector. While there was a decrease among employed men of 1,439 in the three years under review, there was an increase among the female cohort of 3,299.

The report found an overall decrease in the employment rate of 0.8 per cent. This masked gender disparities with the male employment rate dropping by 3.4 per cent and the female rate increasing by 1.5 per cent.

The study pointed out that 4,415 manufacturing jobs were lost between the first quarter of 2001 and the last quarter of 2003, with the manufacturing sub-sector decreasing its share of the employed population by 3.3 per cent.

The performance of the hotels and restaurants sub-sector showed a slight improvement with its share going up by 0.1 per cent.

The study noted a shift away from full-time to part-time employment. It noted that while male full-time employment was on the decrease both numerically and in terms of the share it had of total employment, female full-time employment had increased numerically but decreased in terms of percentage share of female full-time employment.

As an overall result, employment decreased both numerically and percentage wise. There was, however, a corresponding increase in part-time employment across the board both numerically and percentage wise.

The report says that Malta did not compare well with the EU member states and at the end of 2002 it had the second lowest employment rate among the EU25.

The country's total employment rate stood at 54.4 per cent while the EU15 average was 64.3 per cent and the average of the acceding countries was 55.9 per cent.

As far as the employment rate for men was concerned, Malta was above average in comparison with the accession countries, with an employment rate of 74.2 per cent, while the average for the 10 new countries was 61.8 per cent.

The average male employment rate of the EU15 was 72.8 per cent in 2002.

Malta fared worst in the case of female employment. The EU15 average employment rate stood at 55.6 per cent at the end of 2002 while that for accession countries stood at 50.1 per cent. Malta's female employment rate was 34.5 per cent.

The report pointed out that it was clear that job creation over the last three years had not been sufficient to keep abreast of job losses. Malta, it said, was becoming a part-time economy. However, not even the combination of full and part-time job creation seemed to be enough to compensate for job losses.

As things stood at the end of December, in terms of job creation, the data derived from the labour force survey indicated that the Maltese economy could not even be said to be running on the spot.

Dr Sant said that in the first four months of the year just under 1,000 workers were dismissed, an average of eight persons a day. This was a third more than in the first four months of last year.

He said that even according to the ETC register, unemployment increased by 11 per cent in the 12-month period to April this year, with 42 per cent of the unemployed being under 30.

He said the country had already been through 30 consecutive months of having more than 7,000 people registering for employment and President Eddie Fenech Adami had said, when he was Prime Minister, that the employment situation would be alarming when there were over 7,000 people registering for work. Dr Sant said that for the past eight months, the number of people registering for employment had exceeded the 8,000 mark.

He added that through its behaviour, the government was not encouraging employment. The privatisation of Sea Malta meant the country could not be assured of a constant supply of raw materials for industry and the exportation of Malta-made goods.

Dr Sant criticised Government Investments Minister Austin Gatt for his threat to close down the shipyards. This, he said, was provocation because the government did not have any serious plan on the restructuring of the 'yards.

He also criticised the hike in Gozo Channel fares at a time when there seemed to be strong recession in Gozo in both manufacturing and tourism.

He referred to a report issued by the Malta Employers Association which said that the civil service should shed 12,000 of its workers by 2008. This report, he claimed, was being supported by the PN government which had been shocked by a plan under Labour that had proposed the shedding of 5,000 workers.

The report was later criticised by Employment Minister Louis Galea as hardly worthy of a sixth form economics essay, although its figures, he also said, were evidence of the serious restructuring being carried out by the government.

Dr Galea said ETC figures showed a decline in the number of those registering for work and that hundreds made redundant earlier this year had found new jobs.

The private sector had notified the ETC of 1,800 vacancies in the first four months and the services sector was increasing its take-up of labour.

The government, Dr Galea said, was working on renewing the economy, in a spirit of social justice. He denied that the government was planning to shed 12,000 workers from the civil service by 2008.