Efforts to improve positive employment trend

The economic crisis has hit all countries around the globe, or almost. World leaders are working hard to solve the financial and banking crises; in Europe there is a serious concern regarding the performance of the euro. Obviously, the crisis we have had to face during the last few years is not attributable to one single factor, but it seems that several countries have not given enough attention to the job crisis.

 In a report published by Ernst & Young (EY), one of the foremost multi-national companies specialising in financial services, it is calculated that almost four million jobs have been lost in the eurozone since 2007. This alone has contributed to the negative attributes of the economic situation in the European Union. The only two countries that have registered an improvement in the employment sector are Germany and Malta.

 Germany registered the highest improvement with a total increase of 2.2 million jobs in these last years. Malta cannot count its results in millions but we are proud to say that we have increased the number of those gainfully occupied and decreased the number of unemployed, substantially. In Germany the employment rate increased by just under one per cent and in Malta unemployment fell by 0.5 percentage points since 2007.

 Spain’s performance, at the other end of the scale, is worrying. Last year, the number of employed persons was 3.3 million fewer than in 2007, a drop of 16 per cent. Greece registered a drop of one million jobs, equivalent to 23% of employment figures. In Italy over 870,000 jobs were lost and in Portugal 570,000 jobs were lost.

 However in their report EY predict that the situation seems to be turning for the better. A positive trend seems to be underway in Spain, where an unemployment record of 26.1 per cent in 2014 is expected to be cut to 23.8 per cent this year.

 A clear example of the positive effects of a healthy job market happened earlier this week in the US. The BBC reported that an upbeat jobs survey and hopes of a further stimulus of jobs in the eurozone helped stocks open higher with both the ‘Dow Jones’ Index and the ‘S & P 500’ opening higher. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was 38.21 points higher according to this report by the BBC. Shares were also helped by hopes that the European Central Bank would be forced into trying fresh stimulus measures to kick-start the eurozone economy.

 An adverse labour market leads to adverse economic effects. We are working hard to remedy this situation. NSO statistics show that the activity rate of the Labour force survey in Malta rose from 65.7% in Q3 of 2013 to 67.5% in the third quarter of 2014. Furthermore the number of gainfully occupied rose from 159,065 in July 2013 to 164,868 in July 2014.

Through a collective effort, by offering incentives to the business community and by continuing to create a stable economic climate, we feel confident that we can only improve on this recent positive trend in employment.