Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/630594
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 JANUARY 2016 17 MaltaToday Survey Traffic Immigration Buses Corruption Low income Cost of living Parking Environment Jobs Fuel prices State of the roads Traffic Immigration Buses Corruption Environment Cost of living Parking Low income Jobs State of the roads Fuel prices PN voters PL voters But concern about traffic has in- creased by another seven points. Concern about traffic is lower among PN voters. While 47% of PL voters singled out traffic as a main concern only 20% of PN vot- ers did so. Rising concern on traffic may re- flect the worsening gridlock situa- tion on Maltese roads. But it could also reflect a lack of concern on other issues (such as utility bills), which dominated surveys in the past. What is sure is that the sur- vey suggests that Transport Min- ister Joe Mizzi's portfolio, which includes roads, public transport and traffic, attracts the highest levels of concern. Interestingly, worries about parking have also peaked at 10 points, the highest in the past two years. The survey registers a small three point dip in concern on the environment and an 11 point dip in concern on the state of the roads. Concern about the environ- ment remains substantially higher among the university educated, 20% of whom mention the envi- ronment as one of their two top concerns. But concern on the en- vironment drops to less than 7% among the post secondary and secondary educated. Concern on bread and butter is- sues such as low income and the cost of living has also gone up by seven points when compared to August. On the other hand, in a clear in- dication that the public has a pos- itive perception of the country's economic direction, only 1.2% expressed any concern about eco- nomic issues. The survey also reg- isters a small increase in concern about jobs, up from 3% in Septem- ber to seven points now. But this still represents a sharp drop from the 21% who were concerned about the employment situation in March 2014. Methodology The survey was held between Monday 11 January and Thursday 14 January. 688 respondents were contacted and the survey stopped after the 450 quota sample was reached. The margin of error was +/-4.6 percentage points. 38.3.% of respondents said they voted PL in 2013, while 25.4% said they voted PN – which suggests a slight over- representation of PL voters in the sample. Major concerns according to party allegiance Major concerns according to level of education 16.6% 8% 16.1% 26.8% 12.5% 12.1% 10.7% 10.7% 8% 3.6% 4.5% 3.6% 1.6% 6.4% 42.1% 27.2% 14.4% 5.6% 10.4% 12% 10.4% 2.4% 21.6% 22.2% 36.3% 31.3% University Post-sec Secondary Primary 23.4% 17.8% 19.4% 8.7% 12.7% 12.1% 24.1% 11.6% 6.9% 11.7% 11.2% 30.4% 8.8% 6.5% 6.5% 20.3% 14.6% 12% 4.8% 8.7% 7.8% 11.2% 9.7% 8.7% 16.7% 11.2% 6.9% 7.5% 9.7%