Labour Party lambast Opposition's employment criticism

In the wake of new Emloyment and Training Corporation data revealing an increase in employment oppurtunities, the Labour Party has said that not only does "the government has a roadplan at creating greater work oppurtunities, but its measures have yielded fruit since the start of its legislature."

Data provided by the ETC indicated an increase of 4,574 in the total labour supply, attributed to an increase of 3940 in the number of full time jobs and an increase of 634 in the number of registered unemployed, when compared with the corresponding period last year. Conversely, full-time employment in construction dropped by 424 jobs when compared to the corresponding month in 2012.

"These results show that the negative arguments argued by the Opposition are baseless and untrue. The PN is wrong in saying that unemployment is increasing due to the fact that the government has no concrete roadmap to create work."

The creation of employment oppurtunities has been a bone of contention between the government and the opposition with the Nationalist MPs lambasting the recent budgetary measures for their lack of employment oppurtunities.

However, in light of the yearly increases in work, the Labour party has paid tribute to the government and argued that "the increase in job oppurtunities is testament to the new government and its roadmap in creating work.

"The new government has led to the inception of new energy and a determined leadership committed to increasing work."

The PL also praised the government for its incentives aimed at creating greater oppurtunities within the private sector, a claim supported by the ETC who  announced that full-time employment within the private sector increased by 2.5 per cent to 115,556 over 2012.

The Labour Party also argued that there have been increases in work in traditionally slow and problematic sectors, namely work opportunities among youths and in Gozo.