Dr Chircop issued a statement in which he criticised the government for its lack of ability to deal with the problem effectively. He pointed out that between May this year and last year, almost 1,000 people had lost their job, adding that over the same period the Employment and Training Corporation had seen an increase of 783 new people registering for work, up from 7,321 to 8,104.

As usual the most considerable losses were registered in the manufacturing sector, Dr Chircop said, adding that the increases in other sectors were marginal and not sufficient to compensate for the drop in manufacturing. He complained that the government has been neglecting the sector for the past years even though a lot of factories had closed during this period.

Dr Chircop insisted that the government take heed of the situation and said that the situation was creating a hardship for a

lot of families who had to lower their

standard of living.

He also made reference to a report issued by the European commission in which it revealed that Malta was listed the one before last in this sector among the 25 member states. The report also showed that Malta had the lowest rate of female participation in the labour market at 33 per cent.