Half of Malta’s workforce say they spend at least half of their working day using digital devices, with a further one in ten making use of them some of the time, according to new data published by the National Statistics Office on Friday.

This places Malta’s workers among the most frequent users of digital devices in Europe, trailing only five other EU states.

In total, as many as 86% of people in managerial roles and 78% of professionals say they use digital devices at least half the time. On the other hand, some 90% of agricultural workers and roughly 80% of craft or trade workers and machine operators say that they make almost no use of digital devices in their work.

Meanwhile, only a third of self-employed workers say they make frequent use of digital devices.

This data emerged from the NSO’s Labour Force Survey, carried out in 2022. A separate skills survey, published earlier this year, found that over two-thirds of people have at least one computer-related skill, although most said that they are limited to “basic computer skills”.

Women more frequent users of digital devices

The data also suggests that a gender divide in the skills people use in their work persists.

Women are more likely to use digital devices in their work but are half as likely to frequently do hard physical work in their job or to carry out work involving finger dexterity (often understood to include skilled trades such as carpentry and upholstery, as well as repair of machinery and dentistry, amongst others).

Surprisingly, almost two-thirds of all workers say they spend “little to none” of their working hours reading job-related documents, with only one in five spending at least half of their working day reading material related to their job. A further one in five say they spend half their day carrying out complex calculations.

Meanwhile, self-employed workers say they enjoy a far greater degree of autonomy in their work compared to employees, with 60% of self-employed saying they have “large or very large” autonomy, compared to 30% of employed workers.