Last year, 81% of recent graduates from secondary and higher education aged 20 – 34 in Cyprus were employed, close to the EU average of 82%, according to Eurostat.
From 2014 to 2022, the employment rate for this group in Cyprus rose by 12 percentage points, showing a generally rising trend interrupted only in 2017 and during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
In the EU during the same period, it rose by 7 percentage points (pp), showing a consistent rising trend interrupted only by the pandemic.
The employment rate in 2022 marked a new peak in the EU, surpassing the previous high of 81% achieved in 2018, a rate that had remained unchanged in 2019.
In Cyprus, the 81% employment rate was the second highest since 2014, the highest being 82% in 2019.
It is worth noting that between the first available data in 2000 and 2014, there was a gradual drop in the employment rate of this specific population group from 90% to 69%.
The employment rate for recent male graduates has consistently been higher than that for recent female graduates in the EU between 2014 and 2022.
However, in 2022, the gap was narrowed to 2 pp, marking the smallest disparity recorded in this period.
Meanwhile, the largest disparity between 2014 and 2022 was recorded in 2019 (4 pp).
The disparities in employment rates may be explained by the differences in labour market demand and gender inequalities in the fields in the survey.
Women and men tend to study different fields – for example, a higher proportion of science and technology students tend to be male.
In Cyprus, during 2014 – 2022, the employment rate for women was mostly higher than that for men, with the gap in favour of women being the highest in 2018 (9 pp).
The only years where women did not have the largest percentage were 2014 (when rates were equal), 2019 (when the rate among men was higher by 6 pp) and 2022 (when the rate among men was higher by 8 pp).
Employment rates of recent graduates were highest in Luxembourg and the Netherlands (both 93%), Germany (92%) and Malta (91%).
Meanwhile, the lowest rates were reported in Italy (65%), Greece (66%) and Romania (70%).
