04/07/2019 13:51
In 2018, for graduates aged 20-34 in the European Union (EU) who had attained a tertiary level education within the previous three years, the employment rate stood at 85.5%, according to data released today by Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU. Τhe same rate in Cyprus is 81.3%, ranking 5th form the lowest, but still relatively close to the EU average.
This is 0.6 percentage points above the rate in 2017 and 1.4 percentage points below the previous high point of 86.9% in 2008.
The EU Member States with the highest employment rates for recent tertiary graduates in 2018 were Malta (96.7%), the Netherlands (94.8%), Germany (94.3%) and Luxembourg (94.0%). In contrast, there were four EU Member States where the rate was less than 80%: Spain (77.9%), Croatia (75.2%), Italy (62.8%) and Greece (59.0%).
According to Eurostat, young people with a tertiary level of educational attainment recorded the highest employment rates and were generally better shielded from the risks of unemployment than their peers who entered the labour market with lower levels of educational attainment.