Maltese working class becoming more Asian

Workers from Nepal, India and Albania have registered the sharpest percentage increase over the past five years as non-EU workers have now outnumbered workers from the EU in most economic sectors.

This emerges from a comparison between figures for 2021 published in the JobsPlus annual report, and figures in 2016 tabled in parliament.

The increase in workers from South Asia, often recruited by agencies, comes in the wake of the rise of the gig economy, particularly during the COVID pandemic as well as increased demand for health workers.

The list of the 15 most represented nations from which foreign workers in Malta come from, does not include China or any African country.

The comparison shows that workers from India increased from 443 in 2016 to 5,817 in September 2021; while in the same period workers from Nepal increased from just 29 to 2,481.

Workers from Albania also increased sharply from 62 in 2016 to 2,037 last year.

Among workers hailing from EU member states, the sharpest increase was registered among Italians, whose number increased from 5,724 in 2016 to 10,038 in 2021.

Workers from the UK, which represented the second largest contingent of foreign workers in 2016, have been overtaken by workers from the Philippines and India.

The JobsPlus annual report shows that the highest number of non-EU workers are employed in administrative and support services (6,296), the construction industry (5,296), hotel accommodation (5,502) and health (4,358).

EU workers outnumber third-country nationals in sectors like financial services, professional jobs and the entertainment sector, which includes gaming.

The entertainment sector employs 5,970 workers from the EU and only 1,930 third-country nationals.

According to the JobsPlus annual report, foreign workers make up 27.9% of the total Maltese labour force.

Several sectors are significantly above this average, most notably the gambling and betting sector, the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, where 58.6% of its workforce being non-Maltese.

Close to half of the workforce in the accommodation and construction sectors are also non-Maltese, with the majority being non-EU nationals. Most sectors, however, gravitate towards the average, with public administration having the least number of non-Maltese in its labour force at just 2.7%.