Unemployment falls to 7.6%

Unemployment in Cyprus fell to 7.6% of the labour force in the 4th quarter of 2018, from 7.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the Labour Force Survey by the Statistical Service of Cyprus.

According to the results of the Labour Force Survey, the labour force in the 4th quarter of 2018 amounted to 440,765 persons or 62.5% of the population (males 68.5%, females 57.0%) in comparison to 428,291 persons (61.6%) in the corresponding quarter of 2017.

The number of employed persons was 407,382 and the employment rate 57.8% (males 63.3%, females 52.7%) in comparison to 384,911 persons (55.3%) in the corresponding quarter of 2017.

The number of unemployed persons amounted to 33.383 and the unemployment rate to 7.6% of the labour force (males 7.5%, females 7.6%) in comparison with 43,380 persons (10.1%) in the corresponding quarter of 2017.

Employment

For the age group 20-64, the employment rate was 74.5%. The rate for males was 80.2% and for females 69.3%. In the corresponding quarter of 2017 the rate was 71.5% (males 75.8%, females 67.6%). For the age group 55-64 the employment rate was 61.1% in comparison to 57.6% in the corresponding quarter of 2017.

According to the distribution of employment by sector, the biggest percentage of employed persons was in Services (80.8%), followed by Manufacturing (17.1%) and Agriculture (2.1%). For the 4th quarter of 2017, the corresponding percentages were: Services 81.1%, Manufacturing 16.6% and Agriculture 2.3%.

The share of part-time employment to total employment was 11.2% or 45,644 persons (males 8.1%, females 14.6%). The corresponding rate for the 4th quarter of 2017 was 12.7% (males 9.2%, females 16.4%).

86.7% or 353.001 of the total employed persons were employees, of which 12.5% (43,944 persons) had a temporary job. In the corresponding quarter of 2017 employees accounted for 86.8% of total employment of which 14.8% had a temporary job.

Unemployment

For young persons aged 15-24 years old, the unemployment rate was 20.6% of the labour force of the same age group (males 25.7%, females 16.0%) in comparison to 22.9% (males 26.8%, females 19,9%) in the corresponding quarter of last year.

As far as the duration of unemployment is concerned, 53.7% of the total unemployed persons searched for a job for a period of less than 6 months, 14.2% for a period of 6-11 months, whereas a percentage of 32.1% were long-term unemployed. The corresponding rates for the 4th quarter of 2017 were 53.5%, 12.8% and 33.7%.