The unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2019 was 6.3% of the labour force, the Cyprus Statistical Office said on Thursday citing the results of the Labour Force Survey.
It said that there were 28,481 out of a job in that period — representing a 6.3% (men 5.8% and women 7%).
This is down from 33,383 or 7.6% in the corresponding quarter in 2018.
For the whole 2019 the unemployment rate was 7.1% in comparison to 8.4% in 2018.
Overall,the labour force in the fourth quarter of 2019 amounted to 449,784 persons or 62.9%.
The number of employed persons was 421,303 and the employment rate 59.0% (males 64.8%, females 53.5%) in comparison to 407,382 persons (57.8%) in the corresponding quarter of 2018.
Employment
For the age group 20-64, the employment rate was 76.0%. The rate for men was 81.7% and for women 70.7%.
In the corresponding quarter of 2018 the rate was 74.5% (males 80.2%, females 69.3%).
For the age group 55-64 the employment rate was 61.4% in comparison to 61.% in the corresponding quarter of 2018.
According to the distribution of employment by sector, the biggest percentage of employed persons was in Services (78.4%), followed by Manufacturing (18.9%) and Agriculture (2.7%).
For the 4th quarter of 2018, the corresponding percentages were: Services 80.8%, Manufacturing 17.1% and Agriculture 2.1%.
The share of part-time employment to total employment was 11.1% or 46,610 persons (males 7.3%, females 15.3%).
The corresponding rate for the 4th quarter of 2018 was 11.2% (males 8.1%, females 14.6%). 86.5% or 364,233 of the total employed persons were employees, of which 14.1% (51,164 persons) had a temporary job. In the corresponding quarter of 2018 employees accounted for 86.7% of total employment of which 12.5% had a temporary job.
Unemployment
For young persons aged 15-24 years old, the unemployment rate was 16.0% of the labour force of the same age group (males 15.9%, females 16.0%) in comparison to 20.6% (males 25.7%, females 16.0%) in the corresponding quarter of last year.
As far as the duration of unemployment is concerned, 50.% of the total unemployed persons searched for a job for a period of less than 6 months, 19.2% for a period of 6-11 months, whereas a percentage of 30.4% were long-term unemployed. The corresponding rates for the 4th quarter of 2018 were 53.7%, 14.2% and 32.1%.
