Malta no longer has an unemployment problem.
Confirmed against Eurostat (lfsi_emp_a + une_rt_a) and Jobsplus registered-unemployed series. Maltese unemployment ran at approximately 3.1% in 2024 — the lowest or joint-lowest in the EU, and well below the 'structural unemployment' floor most labour economists use (~4-5%). The employment rate (20-64) sits around 83% — the highest in the EU. Long-term unemployment is near zero. Schembri's framing, that Malta no longer has an aggregate unemployment problem, is supported by every relevant primary source.
Confirmed against Eurostat (lfsi_emp_a + une_rt_a) and Jobsplus registered-unemployed series. Maltese unemployment ran at approximately 3.1% in 2024 — the lowest or joint-lowest in the EU, and well below the 'structural unemployment' floor most labour economists use (~4-5%). The employment rate (20-64) sits around 83% — the highest in the EU. Long-term unemployment is near zero. Schembri's framing, that Malta no longer has an aggregate unemployment problem, is supported by every relevant primary source.
We tested Schembri's claim against the Eurostat ILO-definition unemployment rate (une_rt_a + une_rt_m), the employment rate of the 20-64 population (lfsi_emp_a), Eurostat long-term unemployment (une_ltu_a) and Jobsplus registered-unemployed monthly series. These are the standard metrics for assessing whether a country has an aggregate unemployment problem — headline rate, employment-rate, long-term-unemployment, and administrative-register cross-checks.
Verdict lands at True because Maltese unemployment ran at approximately 3.1% in 2024 (lowest or joint-lowest in the EU), the 20-64 employment rate reached ~83% (highest in the EU), long-term unemployment is statistically negligible, and Jobsplus registered-unemployed is at 0.4-0.6% of the labour force. Every relevant primary-source metric places Malta at or near the EU's structural lower bound. The deep-dive lays out the trajectory and the EU-27 comparison; this editorial note is methodology only.
Has Malta really eliminated its unemployment problem
Tested against Eurostat unemployment rate (une_rt_a), employment rate (lfsi_emp_a), long-term unemployment (une_ltu_a) and Jobsplus registered-unemployed series. Maltese unemployment ran at approximately 3.1% in 2024 — the lowest or joint-lowest in the EU and below most analyst estimates of structural unemployment. The employment rate of the 20-64 population reached approximately 83% — the highest in the EU. Long-term unemployment is statistically negligible.
Unemployment trajectory 2013-2025
Maltese ILO-definition unemployment fell from approximately 6.4% in 2013 to a 2024 outturn of 3.1% — well below the EU-27 average of 5.9% (2024). The decline was steady across the period with no material reversals. Jobsplus registered-unemployed counts have collapsed from roughly 7,000-8,000 in 2013 to 1,200-1,800 in 2024-2025.
Employment rate at EU peak
The employment rate (20-64 population) reached approximately 83% in 2024 — the highest in the EU and roughly 6 percentage points above the EU-27 average of 76.7%. This metric captures both the unemployment decline and the substantial increase in labour-force participation across the period (notably female-participation increase from ~50% in 2013 to ~75% in 2024).
What this frame does not test
The strict 'unemployment problem' headline metric is unambiguously favourable. The adjacent questions that 'no unemployment problem' does not address: (1) sectoral skills shortages (real and routinely flagged by employers — companion fact-check #169 on Gozo); (2) underemployment and involuntary part-time work; (3) in-work poverty and the share of working-age adults at risk of poverty (AROPE); and (4) the role of foreign-worker inflows in supporting the headline employment rate. Schembri's framing is about the unemployment number itself — and that is documentary fact at EU best-in-class level.
So is the claim accurate?
Yes. At 3.1% Eurostat ILO-definition unemployment and 83% employment rate (20-64), Malta sits at or near the EU's structural lower bound for unemployment. The headline 'unemployment problem' as conventionally framed is effectively solved at the aggregate level. Schembri's framing is supported by every relevant primary source.
Verdict: True.