National data shows that the public sector comprises 18 per cent of Malta’s 301,785 full-time jobs, slowly aligning with the EU average of 16 per cent.

However, Simonds Farsons Cisk CEO Norman Aquilina delved deeper into the Jobsplus numbers and pointed out that the Government could currently be employing nearly 40 per cent of Maltese workers.

90,000 of those 301,785 jobs (30 per cent) are held by foreign nationals, which means that 211,249 Maltese have a full-time job. Since 54,321 locals are employed in the public sector, this means that roughly one in four Maltese workers (25.7 per cent), is directly employed by Government.

However, Mr Aquilina pointed out that JobsPlus utilises a narrow definition of ‘public sector employment’, including people who work with ministries, departments and local councils, but excluding those who work with government-owned companies, agencies and authorities, and outsourced contractors who are wholly dependent on government.

“Even if no official consolidated data exists, based on NAO figures along with various published annual reports these three categories reflect a sizeable shadow public sector of circa 28,000 over and above Jobsplus public sector figures,” he said.

Including these figures into the equation – with the assumption that they are all locals – raises the number of Maltese in public-dependent employment to 82,321, which is 39 per cent of the total local workforce.   

Several local businesses have long complained that they are being forced to compete with the Government for local human resources, requiring them to recruit from overseas.

The Malta Chamber recently called for a thorough audit of all public departments and entities to uncover surplus human resource requirements, complemented with a transition programme to support the redeployment of these workers into the private sector.

“A healthy economy works like a geared wheel. Public and private sectors must mesh, not compete for the same teeth, otherwise slippage becomes inevitable,” Mr Aquilina said.

"Therefore, when debating labour shortages, and more so, the size of the public sector, we need to take a broader perspective. Until we do so, we will keep asking “Where have the Maltese workers gone?” and we will keep hearing ‘growth’ when it is also ‘Government’.”