Pandemic year saw EU nationals leave, non-EU workers increase

EU nationals working in Malta decreased last year but workers from non-EU countries continued to increase, figures tabled in parliament show.

There were 31,513 EU nationals employed in Malta until September last year, a decrease of just over 5,000 from the previous year. This was the first decrease in EU nationals since 2013 and was probably prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the pandemic did not dampen the number of third country nationals working in Malta. Non-EU nationals increased by almost 8,000 to 38,406.

The figures were tabled in parliament by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana in reply to a question by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi.

According to the government employment agency JobsPlus, there were 69,919 foreigners working in Malta until September last year.

This represents an increase over 2019 of 2,323 as the increase in non-EU nationals made up for the departures from EU nationals.