JobsPlus CEO Clyde Caruana said that Malta would be hamstrung without foreign workers, emphasising that the island cannot do without them, and that 45 per cent of employers in Malta nowadays have at least one non-Maltese worker.
In an interview with the Sunday Times of Malta, Mr Caruana said that the local labour force was being utilised to close to full capacity, it would be ‘verging on madness’ to close Malta’s doors to foreign workers, since they had become such a vital part of the economy.
Mr Caruana said that with Malta’s economic growth continuing apace, there was no indication that job creation would stop, and stated that he expected another 13,000 jobs to be added this year.
He added that if people in Malta want their standard of living to be maintained – and to converge with that of people in other EU countries, such as France and Germany – then the economy had to keep growing, requiring an ever-increasing number of foreign hands to fuel it.
“If we want to retire at 65 or less, to keep the welfare support and have more, the only solution is more economic growth.”
