The crisis in employment was becoming more serious as the number of employees in the manufacturing sector continued to drop, from 19,389 in 2005 to 18,342 last year, Labour Party spokesman on social protection Karl Chircop said yesterday.

Ten years ago, there were 30,569 employees in the sector, and the constant decrease showed that the government was ignoring the manufacturing industry and was not doing its best to find alternative employment for those who lost their job.

One of the reasons which was leading to the closure of so many factories was that Malta was not competitive. According to a report on competitiveness, Malta came only 17th among the EU member states, Dr Chircop said.