The share of foreign workers in the labour force has more than doubled over the last seven years, with Italians, Britons and Spaniards topping the tables.

The total number rose from 9,821 in December 2008, making up 6.1 per cent of the 160,52-strong local workforce, to 27,145 –14.7 per cent – in July 2015, according to data from the Employment and Training Corporation.

Last July there were 4,023 Italian nationals working in Malta – this marks a 780 per cent increase over December 2008.

The next largest group was made up of 3,575 British employees but their increase has not been as dramatic as that of the Italians and was more in line with average growth.

Reflecting the unemployment scenario at home, the sharpest rise was seen among Spanish workers.

In December 2008 only 34 were employed in Malta, with the figure going up to 319 in 2012. By July last year it had reached 1,027, a 1,600 per cent increase.

At 1,275, Filipinos make up the largest group of non-EU nationals employed in Malta. This reflects the demographic and social development taking place here, especially the growth of the elderly population and the changes in the family dynamics, in particular in the lessening of the traditional care-giving role.

The rising proportion of foreign workers should not be seen as evidence they are crowding out Maltese workers, however. According to Joe Farrugia, director general of the Malta Employers’ Association, the indications are that the rising demand for labour by local industries cannot be serviced by the supply of Maltese.

The rising demand for labour by local industries cannot be serviced by the supply of Maltese

Following EU accession in 2004, the movement of foreigners into the Maltese labour market was significant. In 2009, the international recession led to a drop in the flow but since 2010, the volume has grown consistently.

Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo had observed last September that half of the new jobs being created are taken up by foreigners.

“This is a trend which has been going on for years,” he said, stressing that the overwhelming majority were EU citizens not sub-Saharans.

In fact, the share of EU citizens among foreign employees is increasing, the statistics show.

A total of 5,055 registered EU citizens made up 51.5 per cent of the 9,821 foreigners in the workforce in December 2008 but the figure had shot up to 19,179 – 70.6 per cent of 27,145 – by last July.

The influx of foreign workers is spread across the board, although an unevenly distributed pattern is discernible. As Maltese move away from manual occupations, low skilled and manual jobs are increasingly being taken up by foreigners.

However, around 40 per cent of high end jobs, requiring high levels of skill, are taken up by foreigners.

These changes have had an impact on government revenue too. In fact, whereas in 2000, revenue from foreign workers accounted for just 2.4 per cent of personal income tax and national insurance contributions, by 2014 this share had risen to 10.1 per cent, a Central Bank of Malta report found.

The amount of revenue collected from foreign workers increased nine times during the period 2000 to 2014 at the same time as that from Maltese workers doubled.

Aaron Grech, the head of the Economic Research Department of the Central Bank, found that foreign workers boosted average annual potential GDP growth by 0.6 percentage points between 2010 and 2014.

Tonight’s edition of Times Talk, screened on TVM at 10.05pm, will be discussing the issue of foreign workers in Malta today.