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 Contact Information:

 
Lara Friggieri Cordina
Communication and Dissemination Unit​
2599 7210
nso@gov.mt

Reconciliation between work and family life

  • More than one fourth of persons between 18 and 64 years took care of children under 15 years of age (26.4 per cent), 3.5 per cent took care of ill, elderly or disabled relatives and 2.1 per cent reported multi-generational care responsibilities. The remaining 68.0 per cent did not have any care responsibilities. 

  • Females had slightly more childcare responsibilities (41,701) than males (40,452).

  • On average, persons with childcare responsibilities were 39 years old while those with ill, elderly or disabled care responsibilities were 48 years old.

  • The majority of persons with care responsibilities were employed (78.2 per cent), 20.4 per cent were inactive and a further 1.4 per cent were unemployed.

  • Females with care responsibilities worked on average 34.3 hours per week while males worked 42.2 hours per week, that is 8 hours more.

  • Almost one in five females reduced their working time whereas 12.7 per cent of males resorted to ways in which they could increase their income.

  • One in every 3 employees with care responsibilities reported flexible working arrangements (32.8 per cent).

  • A larger share of females (56.2 per cent) had the possibility to vary the start and end of their working day when compared to their male counterpart (40.6 per cent).

  • More females reported flexibility in organising their working time to take whole days off (41.1 per cent females as opposed to 31.2 per cent males).

  • Teleworking arrangements were used by more females (17.4 per cent) rather than males (11.4 per cent).

  • Long working hours (21.8 per cent) was the most common obstacle for reconciliating work and family life.​

  • One in every 4 persons with childcare responsibilities used childcare services.

  • The majority of persons with childcare responsibilities arranged care alone or with their partner (60.2 per cent) while for 12.7 per cent children could take care of themselves.

  • Nearly 12 per cent of persons with childcare responsibilities had informal support in their children’s care namely grandparents’ help (11.6 per cent).

  • ​The majority of persons aged between 18 and 64 stated that despite being employed and having children they did not take a career break (66.1 per cent).​