According to the results of the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the labour force in the first quarter of 2020 amounted to 449,861 persons or 62.5% of the population (males 68.3%, females 57.1%) in comparison to 448,369 persons (63.2%) in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
The number of employed persons was 417,057 and the employment rate 57.9% (males 63.4%, females 52.8%) in comparison to 409,117 persons (57.6%) in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
The number of unemployed persons amounted to 32,803 and the unemployment rate to 7.3% of the labour force (males 7.1%, females 7.5%) in comparison to 39,252 persons (8.8%) in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
Employment
For the age group 20-64, the employment rate was 75.1%. The rate for males was 80.6% and for females 69.9%. In the corresponding quarter of 2019 the rate was 74.5% (males 80.4%, females 69.0%). For the age group 55-64 the employment rate was 59.5% in comparison to 59.0% in the corresponding quarter of 2019.
According to the distribution of employment by sector, the biggest percentage of employed persons was in Services (78.3%), followed by Manufacturing (19.1%) and Agriculture (2.6%). For the first  quarter of 2019, the corresponding percentages were: Services 80.%, Manufacturing 17.9% and Agriculture 2.1%.
The share of part-time employment to total employment was 11.4% or 47,681 persons (males 7.8%, females 15.5%). The corresponding rate for the first quarter of 2019 was 12.0% (males 8.6%, females 15.8%).
85.5% or 356,590 of the total employed persons were employees, of which 13.4% (47,638 persons) had a temporary job. In the corresponding quarter of 2019 employees accounted for 86.2% of total employment of which 11.8% had a temporary job.
Unemployment
For young persons aged 15-24 years old, the unemployment rate was 14,5% of the labour force of the same age group (males 15,9%, females 13,3%) in comparison to 19.8% (males 22.1%, females 18.0%) in the corresponding quarter of last year.
As far as the duration of unemployment is concerned, 57.9% of the total unemployed persons searched for a job for a period of less than six months, 13.9% for a period of 6-11 months, whereas a percentage of 28.2% were long-term unemployed. The corresponding rates for the first quarter of 2019 were 63.4%, 11.7% and 24.9%.
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