Eurostat: Employment in Malta continued to rise in third quarter

Malta had the second highest increase in employment in the European Union in in the third quarter of 2017, increasing by 1.1% over the second quarter, and 4.9% over the same period last year, according to data issued today by Eurostat.

Employment increased by 0.4% in the Euro area, and by 0.3% across the 28 EU member states. Employment increased by 1.7% and 1.8% respectively when compared to the previous year.

The sectors which added the most number of jobs across the EU in the third quarter were “professional and support services” and the “information and communication” sector. Employment grew by 3.4% in both cases when compared to the previous year.

The worst performing industries in terms of employment growth over the same period were “financial and insurances activities”, which contracted by 0.2%, and real estate activities which grew by a comparatively low 0.6% since 2016.

Data on Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) - a measure of material welfare of households - were also published today by the EU’s statistics office.

Across the Member States in 2016, AIC per capita expressed in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) varied from 53% of the EU average in Bulgaria to 132% in Luxembourg.

Malta ranked 17th, with AIC standing at 81%, with there having been no change since 2015.

Ten Member States recorded AIC per capita above the EU average in 2016 namely, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.

The countries where households were found to enjoy a lower measure of material wealth than their Maltese counterparts were the Czech Republic, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria.