ETC report sharp increase in job vacancies, Labour say ‘situation worrisome’

Labour deputy leader Anglu Farrugia said Malta had the lowest rate of female participation in the workforce. Unemployed registering for work had increased by 9% in 2009, and 7.7% more were registering by July 2010 over the same month in 2009 – an increase of 22% in 2009 according to the Labour Force Survey.

“The only jobs to be found are part-time, practically 6 out of every ten persons only have part-time employment,” Farrugia said.

The ETC today said the first six months of the year had registered a sharp increase of 843 vacancies (23%) over the same period last year. The number of people placed in employment also increased sharply by 300 people (19%) over the same period last year.  A total of 1,874 were placed in employment during the first half of this year.

During the same period, there were 1,004 redundancies, which signifies a sharp drop of 397 (28%) from the same period last year.

The ETC attributed this sharp increase to the changing economic climate as well as to its increased efforts in capturing more vacancies from the private sector and in placing more people in employment.

“A particular initiative which contributed to placing more people in employment is the Employment Aid Programme which subsidises the wages of jobseekers who are in disadvantaged situations.

“Another initiative is the Work Trial Scheme which gives jobseekers an opportunity to gain work experience from a real place of work. Through this scheme, employers have the chance to try their prospective employees on this scheme and the participants will receive a 50% subsidy of the minimum wage. Through the Community Work Scheme, the ETC is addressing the specific needs of jobseekers who have been registering for work uninterruptedly for five years or more,” the ETC said.

ETC is also giving generous subsidies to local companies who sponsor the training of their employees, up to a PhD level.