Skills and labour shortages have become Malta’s most serious academic risk, threatening growth and competitiveness, academic Prof. Anne Marie Thake warned.
Prof. Thake, who researches employability and skills and who lectures at the University of Malta, spoke to WhosWho.mt after a World Economic Forum (WEF) report found that talent and/or labour shortages top the list of Malta’s most serious near-term economic risks.
Malta and Japan were the only two countries to identity talent and labour shortages as their most imminent economic risk.
As Prof. Thake pointed out, this wasn’t the first survey which flagged labour shortages as a serious problem.
The EY Malta Attractiveness Survey 2025 also showed that around two-thirds of investors struggle to find the specialised skills they need locally, and 60% rank skills gaps as the top threat to Malta’s future appeal.
“While eight in ten investors still view the country as a strong business destination, the mismatch between demand and talent is already driving higher salaries, rising costs, slower expansion, and reliance on foreign workers, especially in high-value sectors like ICT, finance, and advanced manufacturing,” she said.
“These pressures strain infrastructure and limit productivity, turning workforce shortages into a broader economic challenge.”
This isn’t a purely local problem, with the WEF report identifying labour-supply shocks as a rising global threat.
“Malta’s experience mirrors an international trend,” Prof. Thake said.
“Structural workforce challenges are intensifying worldwide. Without urgent investment in skills development, education-to-employment pathways, and talent retention, these shortages will continue to stifle productivity, undermine innovation and cause a fundamental constraint on economic growth, making talent gaps not just a workforce issue, but a strategic risk to Malta’s competitiveness in an increasingly uncertain global economy.”
