NSO ‘admits mistake’ over increase in public sector employment statement

The National Statistics Office has clarified comments made last week which gave rise to arguments between the government and opposition over which sector was creating the most jobs.

Following an original press statement issued on 11 September, the opposition argued the increase in the number of jobs was down to an increase in the number of people working with the government.

The comments were made based on a statement by the NSO that said that “public administration and defence, compulsory social security and administrative and support services activities contributed mostly to the increase in employment”.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said this was not the case, insisting that the NSO had reclassified workers. The shadow finance minister, Tonio Fenech, replied accusing Scicluna of deceiving the public.

But in today’s statement, the NSO said its statement had been “incorrect”.

It explained that former MRRA employees were classified within the Construction sector and have now been transferred to the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate Change or the Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure.

“The commentary in the news release also stated that there was a drop in employment in the construction sector. The changes in the recorded employment in these sectors were, however, mainly driven by the reclassification in the main economic activity of the employees of the MRRA, rather than by a real change in economic activity,” the NSO said.

It said that the sector with the largest increase in employment was the administrative and support services activities sector, followed by human health and social work and the professional, scientific and technical activities sector.

“The increase in public administration and defence was not the main contributor towards the overall increase in employment as the increase in this sector was primarily driven by a reclassification of workers previously recorded in the construction sector,” it reiterated.

Without the reclassification, employment in public administration would have risen by 265 full-time employees and employment in construction would have risen by 195.

A 744 increase in public sector employment in transportation and storage reflected the transfer of ownership of the national bus system, NSO said.