Maltese businesses are more likely than their EU counterparts to hire workers from outside the bloc when facing a shortage of skilled staff. 

According to a new EU study, almost a third of Malta’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have tried to hire so-called third-country nationals to plug their skills gap in the past two years. 

The 32% rate was much higher than the EU average (16%). Other countries that also tended to hire from outside the union included the Netherlands (25%) and Poland (22%).

The issue of skills shortages is one of the key themes discussed at the SME Assembly, currently taking place in Bilbao where the Eurobarometer on SMEs and skills shortages was published.

Maltese companies try to solve skills shortages by hiring foreign workers. Graphic: Eurobarometer

'Very difficult' to hire

It revealed a significant challenge across the EU, but particularly in Malta.

Almost half of Maltese SMEs surveyed said they found it “very difficult” to find and hire staff with the right skills over the last year, ranking third after Greece (57%) and Bulgaria (50%).

Overall in the EU, the problem with finding the right staff was particularly prevalent in the tourism industry.

The results come at a time of clashing concerns in Malta. As businesses struggle with staff shortages, concerns about overpopulation have led the government to introduce measures to curb the reliance on hiring non-EU workers.

When it came to tackling staff shortage problems, some 37% of Maltese SMEs tried to hire foreign talent from other EU countries, compared to the 32% that said they looked for candidates from outside the EU. 

More than a third said they encountered problems with finding suitable candidates from other EU countries, well above the EU average.

An EU-wide concern

The study showed that skills shortages have become a wider problem in the EU, with skills shortages ranked as the top problem for SMEs across Europe, particularly larger companies.

Bonifacio Garcia Porras, the European Commission’s Director General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said skill shortages have become a rising concern across the bloc.

“It used to be focused on some sectors and in some countries but it is now one of the top three concerns of all businesses,” he told a press briefing ahead of the SME assembly.  

“The issue of skill shortages was not necessarily a top issue but it has become, particularly with an ageing population, a bigger issue.”

He said the Commission was planning on unveiling new measures to help SMEs tackle the problem.

Bonifacio Garcia Porras says the issue of skills shortages has become a wider EU problem. Photo: SME Assembly

In the study, just over one in ten businesses in Malta rated as “very effective” the external support they received to tackle the skills shortage, with 60% saying it was “somewhat effective” and 26% ranking this help as not effective. 

Half of businesses said that upskilling such as training funded by an external entity would be useful for tackling the problem, while 43% said fiscal incentives such as tax deductions or a tax moratorium would help. 

The survey was carried out between September and October this year.