Malta enjoyed the fourth-highest employment rate for recent graduates in the EU last year, according to Eurostat data.  

In 2022, 91% of recent graduates aged 20-34 were employed, the data showed. This was the fourth highest in the EU and fifth overall out of the 30 countries listed.  

It was also higher than the EU average by nine percentage points. 

Graduate employment rates were highest in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, which both scored 93%, while Germany and Iceland achieved a rate of 92%. 

The lowest rates were seen in Italy (65%), Greece (66%) and Romania (70%). 

Graduates were defined as those completing upper secondary education and above, comprising those completing sixth form, vocational college or university courses. 

Those included had to have graduated within the last three years and not be engaged in further studies. 

The employment rate for Maltese university graduates was particularly high, drawing level with Germany at 94%. Only university graduates in Hungary and Latvia enjoyed higher employment rates, at 95%.  

Malta appears to have a tougher time finding jobs for its vocational graduates,  with an 84% employment rate placing its 12th among the Eurostate-assessed countries: immediately above Portugal, Poland and Finland but below Austria, Czechia and Switzerland.

Across the bloc, the average employment rate for recent graduates was 82%, the highest since 2014, according to Eurostat.  

"From 2014 to 2022, the employment rate for this group rose by 7 percentage points, showing a consistent rising trend interrupted only by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Eurostat said.  

“The employment rate in 2022 marked a new peak, surpassing the previous high of 81% achieved in 2018, a rate that had remained unchanged in 2019,” it said.  

Over-qualified workers

In October, the NSO’s first-ever skills mismatch report found that more than half of workers in Malta were over or under-qualified for their job.  

Of the 54% whose qualifications did not match their position, just over 35% were over-educated while 19% lacked the appropriate skills or level of education.   

Meanwhile, the report found that the “over-qualification rate” in Malta had risen from 12% in 2012 to 20% in 2021, with women more likely to be over-qualified for their roles than their male counterparts by 10 percentage points. 

Foreign workers were also 20 percentage points more likely to be over-qualified than Maltese workers, the report said.