The Labour Force Survey published last week shows a substantial increase in unemployment figures, said Malta Labour Party spokes-man for Social Protection Karl Chircop. These figures, he said, bear testimony to the lack of employment opportunities in the country and of the government’s inability to solve the unemployment problem.

When compared to April last year, unemployment figures for April this year show an increase of 600 people. In one year, the number of unemployed people increased from 11,349 to 11,955. During the same period, employment figures decreased from 151,900 to 150,786. The unemployment rate increased from seven per cent to 7.3 per cent, he said.

Labour participation rates have also shown a decrease, especially those concerning female participation, which have fallen from 38.7 per cent to 36.9 per cent over the period in examination. The total rate of labour participation has decreased from 59.5 per cent to 58.3 per cent. Dr Chircop said that these figures highlight the government’s failure to lure any productive investment to the economy.

The male participation has also decreased over the same period, from 80.1 per cent to 79.4 per cent. The MLP spokesman said that he is worried that the Maltese labour market is unable to adapt to the new challenges it is facing, even though the figures may seem to be small.

Dr Chircop said that these figures show that government’s initiatives of granting fiscal incentives, as published during the last budget, in order to encourage more women to find employment have failed. The reason for this failure, Dr Chircop said, is that women cannot find work opportunities. He said also that government has disregarded policies in favour of families with very young children. This situation prevents married women to rejoin the workforce.