The number of people registered as unemployed has fallen to record lows not even seen before the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Robert Abela has said.

Abela revealed that statistics showed that there were fewer than 1,600 people looking for work last week – a number that he said was the lowest in Malta’s history.

Previous lows in registered unemployment date back to 2019, with a low point of 1,616 registered in June of that year. 

The prime minister attributed the positive news to the more than €500 million spent on a COVID wage supplement that helped part-finance wages of workers at businesses forced to shut or slow down due to the pandemic.

“This did not just help us save jobs. It helped us create them,” he said.

Three companies to invest in Malta

Speaking at the opening of a Labour Party press conference, the prime minister said that there was more good news to come on the employment front, with three “big manufacturing companies” to announce multi-million investments in the coming days.

He did not provide any further details about those investments.

In a 40-minute speech, Abela touched briefly on the Labour Party’s plans for the upcoming Budget – no new taxes, but an emphasis on tax collection – as well as the government’s uphill struggle to get off the FATF greylist.

This, he reiterated, was an unfair decision. But it was evidence that “we must be more convincing” in showing national efforts to undertake sweeping reform, he said.

“We needed radical reform,” he said. “I will ensure that justice is done with everyone.”

A greener focus

Abela hinted that the government’s focus needed to be steered in a greener direction, saying that the country needed to “find a better balance between development that generates millions, and projects that might not develop millions but can benefit people.”

He cited examples of what he meant by this: Wied Fulija, where a dumpsite has been turned into a green open space, the creation of a grove at Bengħajsa, plans to revamp Ta’ Qali and a project to create a park in Marsa.

This also went for Gozo, he said – a site he said had to be “protected” without being left behind.

Abela also hinted that there would be modifications to other, unnamed major projects which he said required tweaks to render more sustainable.

“This is not just an environmental message. It is an economic and social one,” he said. “Life should not be a race against time or a rush from one job to another. It is about balance.”

COVID decision-making

Abela took over as prime minister following another Labour Party general conference, held in January 2020. Just months later, he was leading a country into a pandemic.

“I’m used to waves,” he said, “but who could have said I would have found myself in the middle of a perfect storm?”

Abela reflected on the subsequent period, acknowledging that the government had not been perfect in its decision-making.

“We took some decisions too quickly, and we were too cautious at other times. But when it mattered most, we took the big decisions we needed to,” he said.

He shed light on some of the darkest moments in government.

Love us or criticise us, but with us you know where you stand.- Robert Abela

“Of course we had moments of tension. How would you feel if technical experts come to you and say ‘we may have thousands of dead. We may have 50,000 people unemployed’?” he asked his audience.

“But after the first shock – and the shock was a big one – we rolled up our sleeves and soldiered on determinedly.”  

An ‘amateur’ Opposition

Abela contrasted this to the Nationalist Party in Opposition, which he dismissed as “amateur” and divided into “I don’t know how many pieces”.

The PN had set up its own COVID action team which played to the gallery and seemed to “delight in seeing things go badly”.

“When things are going well, they vanish. You don’t see or hear from them,” Abela said.

“Remember how long they went on about how we should go into total lockdown? And then they told us we should have opened everything up. One of them even said that the vaccine was not the solution. Imagine if we had listened to them.”

Abela accused the PN of being out to play partisan politics at all costs, with no policies of substance.  

“Who will lead our health service under the PN? Who among them will decide on economic matters? Where does the PN stand on cannabis reform or on broadening IVF services?” he asked.

“You can love us or criticise us, but with us you know where you stand.”

Abela said Bernard Grech had immediately continued where his predecessors had left off, painting one side as all good and the other as all bad, but had not realised that “people can see through politicians”.

He also had a warning for those within the Labour Party who grew too big for their boots, saying that anyone who acted out of line or arrogantly would find no protection from him.

“This goes for the biggest and for the smallest among us. I will not allow everything we did to be blown away,” he said.