Opposition MP Marie Louise Coleiro said yesterday that families’ problems are being compounded by administrative policies within the Employment and Training Corporation.

Ms Coleiro said that genuine job-seekers are being removed from the register simply due to an administrative policy that is focused on simply getting the number down. According to National Statistics Office figures in January, she said, 481 fewer people were registering for work.

She said that by not giving an explanation as to why the number had fallen, the government was giving the impression that fewer people were unemployed, when that was not the case.

Ms Coleiro said that the government was boasting that unemployment was going down, but the people of Malta and Gozo knew differently.

The statistics did not show how many people were currently appealing against the decision by the ETC to remove them from the register, she said. The government simply wanted to give the impression that fewer people were registering for work, while families were living in poverty.