Cyprus unemployment ends the year almost 20% higher

Registered unemployment in Cyprus ended the year almost 20% higher than in the same period of the previous year, according to the latest figures from the Statistical Service.
The number of unemployed persons registered at the District Labour Offices on the last day of December 2010 was 25,693. This was 4,163 or 19.3% higher than at the end of 2009.
For the whole of 2010, the average number of registered unemployed was 22,842, a rise of 30.5% compared with the 17,505 recorded in 2009.
However, the good news is that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the trend of unemployment in December was downwards. The number of registered unemployed on a seasonally adjusted basis fell by 0.3% compared with the previous month to 24,441.