If there is an area in which the Gozo Ministry has failed to deliver during the last 10 years it is in creating adequate employment opportunities in Gozo

Not only has it failed to create the right environment which is necessary for creation of jobs but it has also managed to discourage the formation of human capital on the island. One only needs to be present in the early hours of the working day at the Ċirkewwa terminal to see the hundreds of young and not so young Gozitans crossing over to Malta to realise the extent of the lack of employment opportunities in Gozo.

While acknowledging the fact that this phenomena existed for decades, it now has reached unprecedented levels. In the past, apart from university students, a limited number of Gozitans had to travel to Malta to work. They were usually employed in entry levels in the civil services and their deployment in Malta would normally last for a few years.

These days, the cross-section of those travelling to Malta is different – today, there are as many people well over 50 years as there are in their 20s. The daily crowd range from clerks to teachers, from machine operators to engineers, from nurses to doctors, from people working in the construction industry to high ranking public officers. While in the past, almost all those commuting would be employed with the public sector, nowadays a significant proportion are employed in the private sector.

These developments did not occur by chance. They are the results of years in which employment opportunities in Gozo were almost zero, apart from those in government departments and agencies. Indeed, employment in Gozo is concentrated in the public sector, which employs more than one-third of workers. Manufacturing activities in Gozo are only a shadow of the levels registered in the past. A look at the data shows that employment in the manufacturing industry declined by 500 persons from 1999 to 2009, with its share out of total employment falling from 19% to 12% in 2009. 500 might not sound a lot, but for Gozo they carry considerable weight.

The employment rate in Gozo is much lower when compared with Malta. Taking the latest available figures, in 2009 the employment rate in Gozo stood at around 51% compared to a rate of around 61% registered in the Main Island, a difference of 10%.

These factors mean that the problem of unemployment is more severe in Gozo. Figures released by ETC show that the number of people registering for work in Gozo amount to around 700 compared to around 6,500 in Malta. Expressed as a percentage of the labour force this amounts to an unemployment rate of around 7.5% compared with a national average of around 4.5%. What is even more worrying is the age distribution of those registering for work in Gozo. Indeed, almost 63% of the unemployed are in their prime in terms of working ability, aging between 20 years to 45 years. This compares to 50% of those in Malta.

The dual effect of lower employment rate and a higher rate of unemployment in Gozo has direct repercussions on the standard of living of Gozitans. The most visible and obvious is that the average household’s income in Gozo is lower than that in Malta: on average a household in Gozo earns around €2,000 less than the average household in Malta. Another not so obvious consequence is the social cost of unemployment. Apart from financial hardship these can range from boredom and alienation to erosion of confidence and self-esteem.

One has also to keep in sight the fact that most of the jobs available in Gozo pay less than those available in Malta. The simple reason is that employment creation in Gozo is highly limited to certain specific jobs such as in the catering industry and the retail sector which offer fewer opportunities than those with higher value added.

The lack of job creation in Gozo has been present for some years. However, the response of the Ministry for Gozo was a typical one: first it tried to ignore it, then when it could no longer afford to look the other way it decided to commission a study which should take stock of the current situation. I doubt how much of the problem will be solved by this strategy. But I guess that is another story as those currently responsible for Gozo have other objectives and aims and do not seem to worry about employment opportunities or the lack of them.

Dr Anton Refalo is Labour Party’s spokesman for Gozo