In just a decade Malta’s population has grown by almost a quarter and by 2019 it exceeded half a million. Such rapid expansion is even more spectacular as in actual fact the increase happened mainly over a seven-year period from 2013 onward. According to the National Statistics Office in 2019 alone, prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, Malta’s population had grown by 21,005 which equates to around 57 persons per day! The bulk of this growth were foreigners whose total rose from 23,611 in 2012 to 103,180 in 2019. Such demographic trend reflects the change in policy from 2013 onwards when the newly-elected Labour government adopted a different economic model based on fuelling economic growth through migration.

While this new approach resulted in robust economic growth and the lowest unemployment, the demographic change came as a shock as the country’s infrastructure could not keep up the pace of the population increase. Ironically, this ended up threatening the quality of life as it led to an increase in traffic, property prices, and Malta’s healthcare services were under stress more than ever to cope with demand.

It is within this context that government is drafting a new active labour market policy. Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has already hinted that some important changes could be in the pipeline and has even floated the idea of imposing quotas on the entry of third-country nationals (non-EU citizens) amid concerns that the massive influx of foreigners was promoting cheap labour which in turn was resulting in negative pressures on the wages of the rest of the population.

Meanwhile, it was also announced that for the first time a skill census will be carried out in order for the government to take stock of the situation and obtain a snapshot of the ‘supply’ in terms of the Maltese workforce. With such information in hand, it will be possible to map this information to the demand for the type of workforce requested by industry, government, services and private enterprises. Hence, government will be in a position to outline the country’s priorities from an academic and vocational perspective.

Nonetheless, there are clear signs for the need to achieve a better work-life balance. By 2020, 71% of mothers and 96% of fathers were in employment meaning there were greater pressures for families to be able to cope with errands, and rearing children. Unfortunately, this is resulting in less quality time together. It is no surprise that between 2015 and 2019 the number of private households where at least one child aged 3 or under is attending childcare, have increased from 2,387 to 6,050.

UHM Voice of the Workers calls for efforts for a long-term economic policy based on value added jobs rather than cheap labour which would give greater opportunity to find the right work-life balance. The solution is not turning the clock backwards but learning from mistakes with the benefit of hindsight in this case statistical data on the trends of the last decade.