The mean age of employed males was 40 years, whereas that of females worked out at 34 years.
From January to March the number of people engaged in manufacturing made up 28,869 or 19.4 per cent. A further 22,973 or 15.4 per cent worked in the wholesale and retail trade. The most common category for occupations in the first quarter was service workers and shop and sales workers.
The average gross salary of employees was estimated to be Lm5,100. Best paid employees worked in the category of legislators, senior officials and managers and in fact their gross annual salary amounted to Lm7,845.
During the first quarter, 17.8 per cent of males were estimated to be self employed, which includes both own-account workers and self-employed with employees. Self-employed women amounted to 2,884 or 6.5 per cent of the total working female population.
During the period under review, the private sector employed 99,285 people, while government departments and ministries employed 31,781 or 21.4 per cent of the total employed. A year on year comparison reveals an increase of 3,108 persons in the Independent Statutory Bodies Sector. On the other hand, a drop of 2,529 people was registered in the Public Majority Sector.
This shift in the economic sector is mainly attributed to the fact that Shipbuilding and Malta Drydocks employees now form part of Malta Shipyards which is classified as an Independent Statutory Body.
The unemployed population
From January to March the unemployment rate stood at 7.2 per cent. In absolute terms, the total number of unemployed was estimated to be 11,528 people. The mean age of unemployed males was 32 years, whereas that of females was 25 years.
Among the total number of unemployed, 55.1 per cent had been looking for a job for over a year and a further 27.2 per cent had been looking for a job for less than five months.
General information on Labour Force Survey
The Labour Force Survey is an enquiry that is carried out using a random sample of 2,500 private households. The survey is designed to measure labour force characteristics using harmonised definitions.
The criteria used for this survey match international methodologies used by the ILO. To date the survey was mainly carried out on a quarterly basis with a specific reference week representing the whole quarter.
In this respect, figures for March 2003 reflect the above methodology. Since the beginning of 2004, the NSO has started to carry out the survey on an ongoing basis. The objective is to have a continuous assessment of labour market trends given that reference weeks are evenly spread throughout the 13 weeks of the quarter. In this respect, the results for January-March 2004 represent data collected in these reference weeks. In view of the above, the methodology in the labour force survey is in a transitional stage.
Labour status
The majority, or 50 per cent of the 15+, are inactive, followed by a further 46.4 per cent employed persons. The number of people in the labour force (employed + unemployed), is estimated at 160,183 of which 48,449 or 30.2 per cent are females.
From January to March, the activity rate, which is defined as the number of people in the labour force (aged between 15 and 64 years)e as a percentage of the working population aged between 15 and 64 years, stood at 58.7. In terms of employment, 54 people out of every 100 in the labour force (15-64 years) were employed (employment rate).