Factors effecting unemployment in Malta in the seventies and early eighties

Abstract

The spectre of unemployment has assumed great proportions in Malta as in other western European countries. In fact commentators on the state of the Maltese economy agree that the present level of unemployment is socially disruptive and economically harmful. These same commentators differ, however, in the identification of the factors which could have induced the present high level of job seekers. In fact some analysts attributed the decline in export performance, output and gainful employment solely to external factors, that is, international recession. Others, on the other hand, while acknowledging that the international economic environment might have been far from conducive to a high rate of growth for the Maltese economy, observed that the current economic slowdown is the result of internal factors, either ineffective policies implemented by the Maltese government or certain practices pursued by private producers operating in Malta.