Unemployment has been rising because Malta still faced a vulnerable economic situation, but Malta remained capable of creating jobs nevertheless, Parliamentary Secretary Clyde Puli said this afternoon.

Mr Puli was speaking at a press conference at the Nationalist Party headquarters, and the topic of the day was job creation, particularly where the young are concerned.

Statistics issued by the National Statistics Office this week confirmed that the unemployment rate has increased for 11 straight months, an issue which was inevitably brought up by journalists.

Mr Puli pointed out that the economic “storm” had not yet abated, and was expected to remain in place for years to come. But he also later noted that despite the fluctuations registered, Malta continued to register one of the EU’s lowest unemployment rates.

The parliamentary secretary repeatedly said that the PN was the party of foresight, while Labour was the party of hindsight. He noted that foresight was needed to replace jobs which are lost because investors determine that their operations would be more profitable elsewhere.

He also pointed out that the Union Haddiema Maghqudin’s Jobs+ strategy had estimated that around 10,000 job positions went unfilled due to lack of suitable candidates in the past five years, over and above the 20,000 jobs the government states have been created during the period.

Mr Puli emphasised the need for continuous training, noting that the concept of a job for life no longer applied, and that people’s employability had to be safeguarded.