Unemployment declines to 6.5%

Unemployment in Cyprus declined to 6.5% in the second quarter of 2019, as employment rose by 4% compared with the respective period of 2018.
 
According to the results of the Labour Force Survey, the labour force in the 2nd quarter of 2019 amounted to 447,364 persons or 62.8% of the population (males 68.6%, females 57.4%) compared to 434,191 persons (62,0%) in the corresponding quarter of 2018.
 
Employment in the second quarter of 2019 rose by 4% to 418,374 and the employment rate 58.7% (males 64,2%, females 53,6%) as opposed to 402,302 persons (57.4%) in the corresponding quarter of 2018.
 
The number of unemployed persons amounted to 28,989 and the unemployment rate to 6.5% of the labour force (males 6.3%, females 6.7%) in comparison with 31,888 persons (7.3%) in the corresponding quarter of 2018.
 
According to Cystat, by sector the biggest percentage of employed persons was in Services (79.4%), followed by Manufacturing (18.1%) and Agriculture (2.5%) compared to 81.6%, 16.3% and 2.1%, respectively.
 
The share of part-time employment to total employment declined to 11.5% or 47,959 persons (males 8.2%, females 15.1%), compared to 12.1% (males 9.4%, females 15.0%) in the respective period of last year.
 
For young persons aged 15-24 years old, the unemployment rate amounted to 14.9% (males 21.1%, females 9.5%) compared to 17.9% (males 24.1%, females 12.7%) in the corresponding quarter of last year.
 
As far as the duration of unemployment is concerned, 50.8% of the total unemployed persons searched for a job for a period of less than 6 months, 17.5% for a period of 6-11 months, whereas a percentage of 31,7% were long-term unemployed. The corresponding rates for the 2nd quarter of 2018 were 44,8%, 21,5% and 33,7%.