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Unemployment at 7.6% in 2020

03/03/2021 06:16

Unemployment in Cyprus in 2020 rose to 7.6% of the labour force compared with 7.1% the year before, pushed upwards by the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic on the labour market.

According to the results of the Statistical Service’s labour force survey, the number of unemployed persons amounted to 36,677 and the unemployment rate to 8.0% of the labour force (males 8.3%, females 7.8%) in comparison to 28,481 persons (6.3%) in the corresponding quarter of 2019.

In young persons aged 15-24 years old, the unemployment rate was 19.9% of the labour force of the same age group (males 28.4%, females 10.9%) in comparison to 16.0% (males 15.9%, females 16.0%) in the corresponding quarter of last year.

As far as the duration of unemployment is concerned, 45.1% of the total unemployed persons searched for a job for a period of less than 6 months, 25.2% for a period of 6-11 months, whereas a percentage of 29.7% were long-term unemployed. The corresponding rates for the 4th quarter of 2019 were 50.4%, 19.2% and 30.4%.

The labour force in the 4th quarter of 2020 amounted to 456,101 persons or 63.1% of the population (males 70.3%, females 56.5%) in comparison to 449,784 persons (62.9%) in the corresponding quarter of 2019.

The number of employed persons amounted to 419,424 and the employment rate 58.1% (males 64.4%, females 52.1%) in comparison to 421,303 persons (59.0%) in the corresponding quarter of 2019.

According to Cystat, the share of part-time employment to total employment was 11.4% or 47,716 persons (males 9.2%, females 13.9%). The corresponding rate for the 4th quarter of 2019 was 11.1% (males 7.3%, females 15.3%).