Malta’s employment continued to expand in 2025, with the latest regional labour statistics highlighting the growing importance of cross-regional commuting, particularly between Gozo and the mainland.
According to figures published by the National Statistics Office (NSO), total employment in Malta reached 340,463 people in 2025, representing an increase of 4.9% over the previous year.
The figures show a marked difference between the number of people living and working in the two regions. While employment in the Malta region was higher when measured by place of work than by place of residence, the opposite was the case in Gozo and Comino.
This reflects the continued movement of workers between the islands. In 2025, 5,511 people residing in Gozo and Comino were employed in the Malta region, meaning that approximately one in every five employed residents of Gozo and Comino worked in Malta. Just over half of these commuters, or 52.8%, were male.
The trend is also evident in full-time employment. The number of Gozo and Comino residents with a full-time job increased by 5.7% in 2025, reaching 20,754. However, only 15,339 full-time jobs were located in the Gozo and Comino region, an increase of 4.4% over 2024.
The difference between the two figures underlines the extent to which Gozo’s labour supply depends on employment opportunities outside the region.
Of the Gozo and Comino residents working full-time in Malta, 4,946 were employed in the Malta region. Some 45.9% of these workers were employed in the public sector, with the remainder working in the private sector.
At the same time, 469 Malta residents worked in the Gozo and Comino region, according to the NSO. This means the movement of workers is not entirely one-way, although the overall balance is strongly in favour of Gozo residents travelling to Malta for work.
Private sector dominates employment
The private sector remained the main source of full-time employment in both regions.
In the Malta region, full-time employment by place of residence reached 283,472, up 4.7% on 2024. The private sector accounted for 82.8% of this employment.
By place of work, full-time employment in the Malta region stood at 288,887, an increase of 4.8%. Private-sector employment accounted for 82.2% of the total.
In Gozo and Comino, full-time employment by place of residence reached 20,754, with the private sector accounting for 68%. When measured by place of work, the region recorded 15,339 full-time jobs, of which 72.3% were in the private sector.
The composition of employment also differs between the two regions.
In Malta, the largest share of full-time employment was concentrated in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, transportation and storage, and accommodation and food services. These activities accounted for 25.4% of full-time employment by place of work.
In Gozo and Comino, these sectors accounted for an even larger share of private-sector full-time employment, at 33.7%.
Meanwhile, public administration, defence, education, human health and social work remained particularly important to Gozo’s labour market. These activities accounted for 77% of public-sector full-time employment in the Gozo and Comino region.
More jobs, but also more commuting
The latest figures provide a snapshot of an increasingly interconnected Maltese labour market, in which the geographical location of workers and the location of their jobs do not always coincide.
For businesses, the figures point to the importance of considering labour supply not simply according to where workers live, but also where they actually work. This is particularly relevant for Gozo, where a substantial share of the resident workforce depends on employment opportunities in Malta.
The NSO noted that the differences in the distribution of jobs between the two regions are mainly attributable to the significant number of Gozo and Comino residents working in Malta.
Part-time employment also remains significant. Gozo and Comino residents held 7,793 part-time jobs in 2025, of which 63.1% were secondary part-time employment. Wholesale and retail, transport, accommodation and food services accounted for the largest share, at 29.8%.
Meanwhile, registered unemployment remained relatively limited. The Southern Harbour and Northern Harbour districts recorded the largest shares of persons registering for work, together accounting for 25.8% of the total, with 319 persons each.
The NSO stressed that the statistics are based on administrative records held by Jobsplus and other latest available NSO data, and are subject to revision.
