More than one in ten Cypriot over-65s is in employment

More than one in ten Cypriots over the age of 65 is actively employed, and that proportion is rising, according to the latest Labour Force Survey.

The Labour Force Survey is taken every quarter using a sample of around 10,000 households.

Results reveal that 11% of the over-65s, or 9,512 people, are in employment, although the number of hours worked can vary from just one to more than 40.

Men are more likely to work than women: 18.6% of men over 65 are in employment, compared with only 4.8% of women.

The official retirement age in the private sector is 65 and the government has recently areed to raise the retirement age for civil servants gradually to 63.

Cyprus will eventually face the same demographic time-bomb that is already hitting other European countries, whereby the number of working people paying taxes shrinks and the number of people drawing state pensions rises.

This has led some European countries to consider raising the official retirement age to even higher than 65. At the same time, the EU is attempting to prevent age discrimination in the workplace to encourage people to work longer.

However, the figures on Cyprus suggest that Cypriots are already pyschologically prepared for the challenges ahead.

Other results shows that in the first quarter of 2005, the number of employed persons amounted to 344,173 (males 195,853 and females 148,320) and the number of unemployed persons to 20,110 (males 8,458 and females 11,651).

The employment rate for persons aged 15-64 was 68.4% (males 79.3% and females 58.1%).

The unemployment rate amounted to 5.5% of the labour force (males 4.1% and females 7.3%). The unemployment rate was higher for young persons aged 15-24 which accounted for 14.0% of the labour force of the same age group (males 12.6% and females 15.5%).

The unemployment rate as measured by the Labour Force Survey tends to be higher than the registered unemployment rate, currently at just over 3%, because it also includes those looking for work but who are not registered.

Fiona Mullen