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Government: The unemployment rate has almost halved

11/01/2019 10:13

The unemployment rate has almost halved through the recovery of the economy over the last years, the Government said on Thursday, adding that Cyprus records the second biggest increase in employment in Europe.
 
Figures released by Eurostat on Thursday for November 2018 showed that the unemployment rate in Cyprus has shrunk to 9.2%, Government Spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said in a written statement, adding that the same figures showed that “the rate of unemployment that stood at 3.7% in 2008 and soared to 15.9% in 2013, has almost halved over the last years, through the recovery of the economy”.
 
The Spokesman cited another recent announcement by Eurostat, according to which Cyprus presented the second biggest increase of employment in the EU.
 
“It is obvious that following the deep economic crisis, that was aggravated by misguided or even ineffective policies, the story of Cyprus has changed over the last 3-4 years. From a story of recession and unemployment it has turned into a story of growth and employment” Prodromou noted.
 
He said that the number of unemployed stood at 23,929 in December 2018, from 46,955 in April 2019 and 50,050 in March 2014, when the unemployment rate reached its peak.
 
Since the end of 2016, two years ago, the unemployment rate has declined by approximately 20%, he added.
 
“It is very well known that this continuous improvement of employment in our country has resulted in the improvement of employment conditions and gradually of the employees’ salaries” Prodromou said.
 
The Spokesman cited figures released by the Central Bank, according to which the unemployment rate was down to around 7% in 2018, while similar findings have been published by the Statistical Service of Cyprus for the third quarter of the previous year, he said.