Two in five non-EU workers in Malta were overqualified for their jobs in 2021, according to a Eurostat study.
Only 13.3 per cent of Maltese respondents reported being overqualified for their position as did 26 per cent of workers born in other European countries.
The numbers of overqualified nationals and EU workers in Malta were both lower than the European average, which stood at 20.8 and 32 per cent respectively.
At 40.1 per cent, the percentage of non-EU workers in Malta that were over-qualified was 0.5 percentage points above the European average of 39.6.
Greece reported the highest levels of overqualification in the EU, with 32.1 per cent of nationals, 48.2 per cent of other European citizens and 69.5 per cent of non-EU citizens – the highest recorded figure that year – reporting being overqualified for their roles.
Luxembourg had the lowest overqualification rates in all categories, with only 4.8 per cent of national workers, 5.5 per cent of other EU citizens and 8.2 per cent of non-EU workers being overqualified.
Of the non-nationals surveyed, fewer men than women were overqualified for their role, according to the study.
Eurostat results show that 42 per cent of women were overqualified against only 24.8 per cent of men. The results for men were 8.7 percentage points below the EU average of 33.5, while the percentage of overqualified women in Malta was 3.5 points above 38.5 average.
Both younger and older foreign-born workers in Malta were roughly as likely to be overqualified for their jobs, at 32.8 and 33.5 per cent respectively.
Younger Maltese employees were more likely to be overqualified than their older counterparts, however, with 16.4 per cent of those aged 20 to 34 being more qualified for their job than needed, versus only 10 per cent of those aged 35 to 64.
Researchers determined whether participants were overqualified by measuring their level of education against their category of job as classified by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
According to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), an ILO structure employed in relation to information on labour and jobs, low- or medium-skilled occupations include services and sales workers, among others. The National Statistics Office (NSO) recorded that 21.3 per cent of the foreign-born workers in Malta were engaged in these occupations during the year of the Eurostat survey.