Oh, don’t worry – we’re going to be selling lots of passports

Published: February 12, 2014 at 10:31pm

There were around 800 more people registering for work last September than there were the previous September:

September 2013 – 7,619 people registering for work
September 2012 – 6,869 people registering for work

Of the new jobs in September, A QUARTER were created by putting more people on the government/state payroll.

These are facts which emerge from the latest numbers released by the National Statistics Office.




34 Comments Comment

  1. Edward says:

    Yes, Labour are just deceitful. They don’t create jobs. They invent jobs and then put people in them and let the tax payer pay the bill.

    • C.Portelli says:

      Twelve months ago the Nationalist Party had a bilboard designed just like this. Elves rushed out in their hundreds to relay their leader’s message that Nationalists were being excessively “negattivi”.

      Now we know who was right.

  2. M. Cassar says:

    This should only surprise those with a short memory.

  3. Rahal says:

    Ironically it is the Labour Party which has always failed in the employment sector and it cannot claim to have made any meaningful contribution in this crucial sector of the economy. Nor is the party said to focus on the proletariat as much as it used to in Mintoff’s times, so why exactly it is still called Labour Party?

  4. The other Joseph says:

    But according to our finance minister, it’s all under control and within acceptable levels. His words.

    Now we can all sleep well. That’s until he loses his job, that is.

    What a bunch of w_ _nkers.

    • mattie says:

      “If you just set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise on anything at anytime, and would achieve nothing. ”
      ― Margaret Thatcher

  5. Harry Purdie says:

    Retail sales begining to slump, especially big ticket items.

    Incomimg investment disappearing. Foreign disinvestment increasing. Around one thousand ‘real’ jobs lost last month.

    Less than one year in, the the Labour downward slope begins. Such a bunch of incompetents.

    Forget about the citizen shit, our economy is heading for the dumps.

    • Calculator says:

      “Forget about the citizen shit, our economy is heading for the dumps.”

      The two are related, you know. Malta’s tarnished image will now scare off real foreign investors (and possibly attract organised crime groups even more).

      • Harry Purdie says:

        Please read my comment again. All economic indicators are heading south.

        Foreign direct investment is decreasing, due to many factors, of which you cite one.

        My point is that this ‘government’ is incompetent.

        My international investor colleagues, who were, a year ago, quite excited about Malta’s potential, have lost all interest in the rock.

      • Jozef says:

        A decrease of 552 million in FDI over the previous year to be exact.

        Compound that with revenue lost and Muscat’s biljun soon becomes zero.

        The downward slope steepens exponentially.

    • mattie says:

      “Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.”

      Margaret Thatcher

  6. H.P. Baxxter says:

    It was ever the same with Lejber.

    Everyone knows you can’t run a country like you run a household, where it’s just income minus expenditure. They’re worse. They run their country like a gambling addict would run his life: spending money like there’s no tomorrow, and always depending on some big win that’ll bring him a giant wad of cash that he can then spend at will.

    In Mintoff’s day the jackpot was the extra seven years’ worth of lease from the British, and donations by Gaddafi and China.

    In Alfred Sant’s day it was tariff barriers and excise duties, which sent the economy down the toilet.

    For Joseph Muscat, it’s one billion from Henley & Partners, plus aid to developing countries from China, plus an oil contract with a Libyan prime minister who governs just a few blocks in Tripoli.

    And that’s it. No attempt at building a real economy, no attempt at giving people the tools to create their own wealth.

    I fell in love with Helga Ellul when she mentioned that ‘pyramid’ of economic activity that is the key to economic growth and national wellbeing.

    Muscat’s pyramid is probably aluminium-plated fibreglass, with a big purple neon sign saying ‘CASINO’.

  7. Matthew S says:

    A few years ago, the same week that a factory closed down (can’t remember which), Lawrence Gonzi went on Xarabank to face a room full of angry people who had just lost their jobs.

    This week, Arrow Pharma claimed that it’s going to sack 110 employees (pharmaceuticals are a much more important sector of the modern economy than fabrics) but Xarabank is busy providing us with wall-to-wall coverage of the Eurovision song contest, shows about Valentine’s day and other similar frivolities.

    It’s as if nothing remotely strange is happening in the country. It reminds me of the Turkish national television station which aired a documentary about penguins while anti-government protests were going on in Taksim Square.

    Are there any shows discussing politics on the national channel any more besides those run by former Super One employees?

    The readers of this blog might not need such programmes but others do. The national television channel has a duty to transmit important issues which affect the general populace. The current state of affairs is a brazen attempt at detaching people from reality.

    • Albert Bonnici says:

      I cannot agree more with Matthew. Besides I have always thought that Xarabank was a stupid program. Anyway now even worse that Peppi has lost his family jewels or had them removed. Wonder where his sidekick Lou Bondi is.

    • M. Cassar says:

      While reading about Chinese ‘democracy’ in communications and access to information this sentence struck a particular cord:

      ‘The enforcement (or threat of enforcement) of censorship creates a chilling effect where individuals and businesses willingly censor their own communications to avoid legal and economic repercussions.’

      Now why would that be one wonders?

    • mattie says:

      Hawn l-injoranza f’dal-pajjiz. Biex issib wiehed mohhu miftuh trid tkun qisek sibt labbra fit-tajn.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Xarabank keeps up the idiotification started by Mintoff. It is anti-democratic and the best tool for any tyrant who wants to take over the country.

      That stupid man Peppi Azzopardi doesn’t realise the damage he’s been wreaking.

  8. mattie says:

    Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

  9. Tarzan says:

    According to Super 1 TV news, employment increased during September 2012 and September 2013.

  10. tinnat says:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/us-passport-idUSTRE81B05A20120213

    This article is very interesting, particularly its date of publication – February 2012 and the following sentence:

    “Henley is also advising several other countries that want to adopt citizenship by investment, Major says. Among them: Malta and Croatia.”

  11. E says:

    They also have employed people in government appointed roles to work alongside their counterparts that were appointed by the previous government until the latter’s contracts run out, thereby paying double salaries unnecessarily.

  12. La Redoute says:

    We can make up the FDI loss by selling lots of government bonds – sorry, government approved bonds – to shady new citizens who’ll then have even more of Malta in their grip.

    http://maltatoday.com.mt/en/businessdetails/business/businessnews/Foreign-investment-in-June-down-by-552-million-compared-to-2012-20140213

  13. La Redoute says:

    Never mind. Our economy is moving out from its prehistory into the age of globalisation, Muscat’s ventriloquist says via the man himself.

    http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-02-13/news/malta-sees-huge-decrease-in-industrial-production-3942252547/

  14. The Observer says:

    “Imma dak ghax in-nies issa ghandhom iktar fiducja li jsibu xoghol, ghalhekk telgha n-numru ta’ nies jirregistraw” – illogical explanation by Ms Fleur Vella Labour MEP candidate

  15. RJC says:

    Add to this a loss of €552 million in Direct Foreign Investment and our government is sitting pretty.

  16. Chris Briffa says:

    A consistent hallmark of all Labour administrations. Totally clueless as to how to generate a vibrant economy. The numbers speak for themselves.

  17. Anthony says:

    Labour is Labour is Labour.

    In Malta, in the UK, in France. Everywhere.

    Labour is very adept at distributing wealth created by jobs created by non-labour.

    When Labour runs out of other people’s money it hibernates into opposition. It waits in earnest for the other side to bake the cake.

    Then it fights itself into government, no holds barred, to distribute the slices and the iced buns.

    The electorate is gullible, very gullible. Everywhere.

    Look at France. A great nation reduced to universal ridicule thanks to a socialist government.

    Tutto il mondo e’ un paese.

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