Incoming Prime Minister Robert Abela has reportedly chosen Clyde Caruana, an economist specialising in the labour market and the welfare state, as his chief of staff.

Since 2014, Clyde Caruana has been in charge of JobsPlus, presiding over the state employment agency during a period of record unemployment for Malta.

Caruana has been vocal on the need for Malta to keep on attracting several thousands of foreign workers if the economy is to keep on growing at the current rate, warning last October that the problem with the Maltese economy isn’t the high influx of foreign workers but the low number of Maltese workers in the labour market.

Caruana will replace Mark Farrugia, who was appointed OPM chief of staff last November after Keith Schembri resigned in the wake of Yorgen Fenech implicating him in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.