The latest figures published by the National Statistics Office based on information supplied by the Employment and Training Corporation prove the deceit of GonziPN which is claiming that between 2008 and 2011 some 20,000 jobs were created, acting Labour Party leader Anġlu Farrugia said.

But the Nationalist Party was quick to reply and accused Dr Farrugia of being an amateur as he did not know the difference between new jobs and an increase in employment.

The NSO figures show that the number of jobs created in that period, including part-time jobs, amounted to 9,922, or less than half the figure touted by GonziPN, he said. Of those, 3,276, or one-third, were full-time jobs. The other two-thirds, 6,646, were part-time.

55% of those who found part-time jobs have that work as their main employment, the other part-timers took up their job as a supplement to their full-time earnings.

Dr Farrugia said it was clear that the number of those taking up work because they had no job between 2008 and 2011 was 6,904, which is a far cry from the 20,000 GonziPN claims.

In reply, the Nationalist Party accused Dr Farrugia and Labour leader Joseph Muscat of being amateurs, as they do not know the difference between new jobs and increase in employment.

Before he went on holiday, Dr Muscat showed that he did not know the difference and his mistake was copied by Dr Farrugia.

The number of new jobs is the gross amount created by the economy, while an increase in employment is the net difference after the new jobs would have filled up others that were lost and/or the number of people leaving employment or retiring.