Number of registered unemployed in Cyprus down 41.4% y-o-y at the end of July

The number of registered unemployed in Cyprus at the end of July decreased annually by 41.4% and reached pre-pandemic levels. This is mainly due to the accommodation and food services sectors, while July was the first full month in which the automatic renewal of unemployed registrations by the Department of Labour was terminated.

According to a press release by the Statistical Service of Cyprus (CyStat), the unemployed persons, registered at the District Labour Offices on the last day of July 2021, reached 18,950 persons. Based on the seasonally adjusted data that show the trend of unemployment, the number of registered unemployed for July 2021 decreased to 22,778 persons in comparison to 26,429 in the previous month.

In comparison with July 2020, a decrease of 13,363 persons or 41,4% was recorded, attributed mainly to the sector of accommodation and food service activities (a decrease of 5,743), trade (a decrease of 2,106), transportation and storage (a decrease of 756), manufacturing (a decrease of 704), administrative and support service activities (a decrease of 518) and financial and insurance activities (a decrease of 509).

It is pointed out that, according to information provided by the Department of Labour, from Tuesday, June 15, 2021, the automatic renewal of registrations was terminated and the online platform of the Public Employment Service was activated to allow the registration of a new job application, its renewal, as well as a job vacancy registration.

This new settlement, CyStat says, may affect the comparison of the monthly unemployment data recorded through this new procedure with the data recorded from the previous procedures and which is evaluated by the Department of Labour.