Be the first to comment!EC “exposes government’s new jobs myth” – Labour MEP
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According to Labour MEP Edward Scicluna, “the Government’s claim about job creation has been exposed as a myth” after the European Commission told the MEP that neither Eurostat nor the national statistical bodies collect data on ‘new jobs’ since the European System of National Accounts (ESA 1995) does not recognise it as a measurable statistic.
The Commission was responding to a series of parliamentary questions tabled by Prof Scicluna on whether Eurostat collected data to assess numbers of ‘new jobs.’
In its reply, the Commission stated that “the Commission (Eurostat) and National Statistical Institutes collect and publish harmonised quarterly and annual statistics on the number of persons employed. Persons employed and jobs do not have 1-to-1 relation and an employed person may have more than one job.”
Prof Scicluna said, “What prompted me to ask these questions was the surprisingly unorthodox formula presented as to how ‘new jobs’ were calculated for the Prime Minister. The inclusion of redundancies seemed to me highly questionable and bordering on the downright unacceptable. But I wanted the confirmation of the Commission on this.”
“The Prime Minister’s much touted claim to have created 20,000 new jobs figure is nothing more than a myth.
“Last month, Prime Minister Gonzi told Parliament that the government had created nearly 24,000 new jobs since the start of 2008. According to the EU’s statistical agency Eurostat, the number of persons employed in Malta for more than one hour per week, has increased from 160,600 at the end of 2007 to 170,300 in 2011, an increase of 9,700 persons,” the MEP said.
“It is very amateurish and irresponsible for an official or advisor to pass on data to the Prime Minister based on such spurious estimations, especially when more officially reliable data from Eurostat is available. But I suppose Eurostat’s data is not there to serve the government’s agenda,” Prof Scicluna concluded.
Photo shows Prof. Edward Scicluna with EuroStat Director General Mr Walter Radermacher.
