In the light of Workers’ Day, various aspects of employment in Malta have recently been put under the spotlight. Meanwhile a series of statistics have been published which are quite worrying and deserve attention.

According to Eurostat data, Malta had the lowest increase in wages in 2018 of all EU Member States. Furthermore, salaries in Malta are way below the EU average. These figures are worrying because, when coupled with the ever-increasing rise in the cost of living, including the cost of essential items, the result is less money left in the spending budget of families.

The reality in Malta is that we often lose highly-qualified workers because of the low wages. If this does not change, we can expect a scenario in which more and more Maltese citizens will be looking for work in other EU Member States that provide more attractive salary packages than Malta.

Other data published by Eurostat confirms that Malta has the second highest rate of early school-leavers across the EU, with one out of every six students leaving school in their mid-teens. Although Malta pledged to bring down the figure to 10 per cent by 2020, the figure had only fallen to 17.5 per cent  by 2018.

Moreover, statistics from MATSEC show that one in three students who were born in 2002 are at risk of dropping out of school. Furthermore, Eurostat data shows that the rate of students in tertiary education aged between 30 and 34 is also quite low, with Malta only eight places from the bottom. As a result, Malta has a high percentage of unskilled workers, which is amongst the highest in Europe, according to a top official at JobsPlus. This further raises concern as experts are saying that Maltese workers should have better skills, or else they will face competition as a result of cheap imported labour.

Cheap labour in Malta is no exaggeration: the UHM chief has confirmed that foreign workers in Malta are paid as little as €1 an hour. In order to address this problem, we need to involve all relevant stakeholders to review the strategic plan for early school-leavers and identify what further measures are needed to reach our targets. We also need to ensure that we are offering our students education of the highest quality and the necessary skills to attract new economic sectors that employ high-skilled workers with high pay.

Another set of worrying statistics published in March by the European Commission’s Statistics Office showed that the largest employment gap between men and women was registered in Malta. While the gender gap did exist in the past, the situation has become much worse. This is not only having an impact on the daily lives of women but, in the long-term, women’s lower wages – compared to those of men – will also negatively affect their pensions.
It is true that the level of unemployment is low and we welcome this. Contrary to what the government tries to imply, we want everyone to succeed and live with dignity. But this is not enough and should not be the only ambition of any government. We have a government busy dishing out positions of trust to those who appear on its propaganda billboards but which then  fails to look at the bigger picture and create good jobs for everyone through new economic sectors. The Government needs to seriously address its employment policy and move its focus from cheap labour to high quality jobs with good pay.