Tista’ taqra bil-
Malti.
In Malta, the pre-pandemic size of the informal economy – in which workers or employees don’t have fixed working hours and wages – was estimated to be at around 21% of GDP, a Eurofound report on ‘societal implications of labour market instability’ found.
An informal economy is the part of any economy that is neither officially taxed nor monitored, and various studies put Malta’s informal economy among the largest in the EU, surpassed only by Bulgaria and Croatia.
Eurofound – the EU’s agency responsible for managing research and gathering information on living and working conditions, also noted that researchers, as well as several recent media articles, suggest that purchasing undeclared goods and services, as well as tax evasion, is rather common and accepted by Maltese citizens.
According to the study, migrants and asylum seekers in Malta, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa or Asia, are likely to enter into exploitative, undeclared employment, particularly in the construction sector.
It added that many ‘are vulnerable to trafficking in the country’s informal labour market, including within the construction, hospitality, and domestic work sectors’.
The study concluded that while short-term temporary contracts have become less common among employees in the past decade, they are still relatively widespread in some EU Member States, mostly among young people and non-nationals with low levels of education who cannot find a permanent job, particularly in the education and health sectors.
Temporary workers often work long hours, feel underemployed and are most likely to be looking for other jobs, the study found.
Moreover, according to the study the proportion of involuntary part-time workers in Malta fell from 19.6% in 2010 to 7.3% in 2020, and it is among the lowest in the EU.
While few measures have been introduced to tackle underemployment, several recommendations listed in the National Employment Policy 2021–2023 directly or indirectly address underemployment but are yet to be implemented.
These include the National Skills Census, incentives for retired workers to offer training/mentorship programmes at their place of employment or in trade schools, and some other measures related to skills, career pathways in different sectors and career guidance.
