Over the past few years, Malta has emerged as one of the top destinations for foreigners to work. The reason is easy job access for third-country nationals. How to find a job in Malta, does not remain difficult now. many online portals provide now the latest vacancies in the Maltese labor market, especially for foreign workers.
Foreign nationals having found a job in Malta can apply for a single residence permit. The work permit application is made online to Identity Malta online portal. Which then processes the visa application with the help of its stakeholder “Jobplus”.
Moreover, it issues the work permits in Europe at the highest ratio against the population. The most were recorded in 2018 when it issued 17,000 residency permits, which is the rate of 35 for every 1000 people. The ratio increased from 42 to 1,000 in 2019 which is the highest ever in Europe. According to Eurostat, in 2019, Malta further issued 28,939 first and renewal of residence permit.
As a general consideration, the small size of the Maltese workforce poses a structural challenge to employers seeking specialized profiles with relevant work experience. Following accession to the EU, the Maltese economy has undergone a structural shift towards more knowledge-based activities requiring skilled workers.
A lack of “hard skills” in the local labor force was mentioned in relation to several higher-skilled bottle-necks. This can be due to a variety of factors ranging from too limited a supply of graduates (e.g. nurses, doctors, accountants) or too short a time for education providers to re-train and up-skill the local labor force to adapt to the new needs of the market. In the case of doctors, ICT specialists, and senior positions within the financial sector, competition takes place at the global level thus making it even more difficult to retain/attract human capital.
Finally, a number of lower-skilled jobs are also classified as bottlenecks, notably within the tourism and hospitality sector and the social work sector. According to anecdotal evidence, the number of vacancies is fairly low for some of the identified bottleneck occupations. e.g. chief executives, and network administrators. Nevertheless, they represent a pivotal contribution to the development of the relevant sector.
Top 20 highly demanded occupations in Malta
Here is the list of top 20 bottleneck vacancies (highly demanded occupations) in malta over the past few years:
- Specialist Medical Practitioners
- Nurses and Midwifery professionals
- Paramedics
- Veterinarians
- Software developers
- Software testers
- Systems Administrators
- ICT Operators Technicians
- Accountants
- Financial Analysts
- Managing directors and chief executives
- Life science technicians
- Aircraft engine mechanics and repairers
- AC and refrigeration mechanics
- Primary School Teachers
- Child Care Workers
- Concrete placers and finishers
- Customer care clerks
- Waiters
- Housekeepers
How to find jobs in Malta?
There are many ways you can find jobs in Malta. Other sources are obviously private recruitment agencies or online job portals. All main and secondary jobs finding sources are listed below:
Government based official portals
The “Job plus” is a government-based employment agency in Malta that releases a bunch of the latest vacancies each month. Though most of these jobs are for locals and only they can directly apply through the official portal by using their Maltese ID but still the jobs database gives an immense advantage to the foreigners to get to know about the available jobs there with companies’ names and all other details. Through these job advertisements, one can easily directly apply for a job to the employer.
This is the official job portal of the European Union. There are posted all types of jobs here for all EU member states. So in nutshell, the job standards are maintained here and only valid and good jobs are posted in the database.
Other portals (specifically only for Malta)
There are many other general job portals too just like stepstone, reed, indeed, just landed and Randstad, etc which occasionally post jobs vacancies from Malta too.
| Language | Maltese, English |
| Currency | Euro |
| English jobs availability | Yes |
| Population | 502,653 (2019) |
| Capital | Valletta |
Jobs application kit
Required documents for a work visa of Malta
- Application Form duly filled in and signed by the applicant
- One recent Passport size photograph in color with white background (3.5cm by 4.5cm). Please do not staple the photographs to the Application Form.
- Passport/Travel document must:
- Be valid for at least 3 months after the intended stay;
- Be issued within the previous 10 years and not valid for more than 10 years;
- Have at least 3 blank pages.
- Overseas Travel Medical Insurance valid for all Schengen countries.
The insurance must cover the applicant for at least 30,000 Euros or equivalent for all risks (accident, illness, medical emergency, evacuation, etc). The policy must clearly specify the period of validity and must cover at least 91 days from the date of travel to Malta. - Confirmed Travel Itinerary for travel to Malta.
- Invitation Letter from Employer stating the professional status of applicant and details of the work to be carried out in Malta. The letter must be signed by an authorized person, whose name and designation must be stated.
- Signed employment contract, certified true copy by a Maltese Notary Public.
- Identity Malta letter confirming that the request for a work permit has been acceded to.
- Possession of skills/qualifications if employment so requires; Proof of Board Membership for liberal professionals; or Letter from Medical Institutions in case of doctors, must be submitted in originals (Apostilled) together with photocopies.
- Proof of Accommodation (any one of the following):
(i) Confirmed Hotel Booking; (ii)* signed lease contract; or, (iii)* ‘Declaration of Proof’ completely filled in and signed and photocopy of the host/owner’s ID card.
*Points (ii) & (iii) in original and witnessed by (Maltese) Public Notary