A leading economic lobbyist has dismissed political bickering over job creation figures as “meaningless controversy” and called for a more reasoned analysis of the economy.

While the government says more than 20,000 new jobs have been created since 2008, the Opposition is arguing that the number is hugely inflated, with the real figure closer to 4,000.

But Malta Employers’ Association director general Joe Farrugia looked beyond the political spin and suggested putting the partisan to-and-fro to bed yesterday, before listing some of the statistics he felt were more worth analysing.

“Unemployment levels; the number of people working; the number of full-time jobs; the number of job vacancies; employment levels among special economic segments – these are all far more useful than arguing over how to measure the number of new jobs generated,” Mr Farrugia told The Times.

By Mr Farrugia’s measure, Malta’s economy, appears to have done fairly well over the past years.

At 6.8 per cent, Malta’s unemployment rate remains among the EU’s lowest.

Youth unemployment, at 17.6 per cent, is lower than the EU average of 22.6 per cent, while more women are looking for work – although female workforce participation remains extremely low by European standards.The number of gainfully employed people has also risen, with National Statistics Office figures indicating increases in the number of both full- and part-time jobs.

And after a sharp dip in 2009, the number of job vacancies picked up, with more vacancies available in 2011 than in 2008.

But politicians continued to bicker over job creation statistics yesterday, with Labour Party deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia branding the government “liars” for insisting more than 20,000 new jobs had been created this legislature.

---

6.8%

Malta’s unemployment rate, among the EU’s lowest

---

Pointing to the government’s recently launched pre-Budget document, which indicates an increase of just over 4,000 gainfully employed people since 2008, Mr Farrugia railed against the government’s job generation claims.

During a news conference, he accused the government of inflating job creation figures by including job transfers, reactivated contracts and replaced workers in their statistics.

“The Finance Ministry’s own document has discredited the 20,000 job claim,” Mr Farrugia said.

“The claim was a myth: now it is a lie, and a lie that is insulting to those looking for work. The Prime Minister ought to apologise for it.”

But a Finance Ministry spokesman said the Labour Party was muddling its numbers and not distinguishing between new jobs created and an increase in those gainfully occupied.

The government has arrived at its 20,000 figure by calculating the net increase of gainfully employed full- and part-time workers and then adding the number of people made redundant between 2008 and 2011.

Including redundancies, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had said in response to a parliamentary question last May, made sense as “a person made redundant who subsequently finds work means a new job has been generated”.

Economist Lawrence Zammit said the reasoning made perfect sense and used a simple metaphor to illustrate his point.

“Imagine a basket with 10 oranges. You take two out. Then, when you return to the basket, you find 13 oranges. Obviously, five have been added in all. But using gainfully occupied statistics would show an increase of just three.”

Economics professor Lino Briguglio was less convinced by the inclusion of redundancy statistics in the formula however.

“I do not understand what the Prime Minister meant by redundancies. I think you are right in seeking a clarification,” he told The Times.