Last Updated on Thursday, 25 June, 2020 at 1:20 pm by Andre Camilleri
During the first quarter of 2020, Labour Force Survey estimates indicate an increase of 5.5 per cent in employment when compared to the corresponding quarter of 2019, the NSO said today.
Labour Force Survey estimates indicate that, during the first quarter, total employment stood at 260,827 accounting for 60.3 per cent of the population aged 15 and over. Unemployed persons stood at 9,006 (2.1 per cent) while inactive persons totalled 162,656 (37.6 per cent). The activity rate for the quarter under review was estimated at 77.2 per cent with the highest rate recorded among persons aged 25 to 54 (89.4 per cent). The Employed Population On average, out of every 100 persons aged between 15 and 64 years, 75 were employed. The male employment rate for this age bracket was 82.6 per cent while that for females stood at 65.7 per cent. The largest share of employed persons was recorded among persons aged between 25 and 34 years, for both males and females.
Self-employed persons accounted for 15.5 per cent of all persons with a main job. The majority of employed persons worked on a full-time basis totalling 225,836 and 34,991 had a part-time job as their primary employment. Results show that, on average, full-timers usually worked 41.6 hours while part-timers worked 21.4 hours per week.
The average annual basic salary of employees for the first quarter of 2020 was estimated at €20,196. The highest basic salary was recorded in the Financial and insurance activities sector. Average annual salaries varied from €13,138 among persons employed in elementary occupations to €34,950 among managers. The Unemployed and Inactive Population The unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2020, stood at 3.3 per cent.
The largest share of unemployed persons was recorded among persons aged 25 to 74 years. Females accounted for 60.6 per cent of total inactive persons and those over 65 years made up the highest share of the inactive. Over 40 per cent were inactive because they had reached retirement age or were taking up early retirement. Education Attainment According to the Labour Force Survey nearly half of those over 15 years had attained a low level of education. By contrast 33.3 per cent of those employed had a tertiary level education.
