Eight out of 10 of graduates aged 20-34 in Cyprus were in employment in 2018 — the fifth lowest figure in the EU28 and below the EU28 average of 85.5%, according to figures released by Eurostat on Thursday.
Eurostat figures show that in 2018, for graduates aged 20-34 in the European Union who had attained a tertiary level education within the previous three years, the employment rate stood at 85.5%.
This is 0.6 percentage points above the rate in 2017 and 1.4 percentage points below the previous high point of 86.9% in 2008.
The EU Member States with the highest employment rates for recent tertiary graduates in 2018 were Malta (96.7%), the Netherlands (94.8%), Germany (94.3%) and Luxembourg (94.0%).
In contrast, there were four EU Member States where the rate was less than 80%: Spain (77.9%), Croatia (75.2%), Italy (62.8%) and Greece (59.0%).
In Cyprus the figure was 81.3% — higher for women (83%) than for men (78.6%)
Young people with a tertiary level of educational attainment (ISCED levels 5-8) recorded the highest employment rates and were generally better shielded from the risks of unemployment than their peers who entered the labour market with lower levels of educational attainment.
The source dataset can be found here.