Cyprus jobless slows in Q4 13, up 0.1% in euro area and EU28

The number of people employed in Cyprus dropped by 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared to a 0.1% quarter-on-quarter increase in both the euro area (EA17) and the EU28, according to Eurostat.
However, the quarterly drop in the employment rate slowed in Cyprus, having dropped -1.2% in Q3, -1.8 in Q2 and -1.0% in Q1.
On an year-on-year basis, Q4 employment dropped -4.1%, -6.0% in Q3, -6.0% in Q2 and -4.8% in Q1.
Among EU member states for which data are available, Lithuania reported the highest employment growth in the fourth quarter (+1.0%), Ireland and Portugal (both +0.7%) saw the next best increase, while Estonia
(-1.3%), Latvia (-1.1%) and Cyprus (-0.6%) the largest decreases.
In the third quarter of 2013, employment remained stable in the euro area and increased by 0.1% in the EU28. These figures are seasonally adjusted.
Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, employment fell by 0.5% in the euro area and by 0.1% in the EU28 in the fourth quarter of 2013 (after -0.8% and -0.3% respectively in the third quarter of 2013).
Over the whole year 2013, employment decreased by 0.9% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU28, compared with -0.7% and -0.2% respectively in 2012.
Eurostat estimates that, in the fourth quarter of 2013, 223.6 mln people were employed in the EU28, of which 145.0 mln were in the euro area. These figures are seasonally adjusted.
These quarterly data on employment provide a picture of labour input consistent with the output and income measure of national accounts, Eurostat said.