SOCIETY: In Cyprus 20% of young women are jobless and outside education

At 17.4% Cyprus exceeds the EU average (16.5%) for the percentage of young people aged 20-34 neither in employment nor in education and training.

When broken down by gender, the Cyprus percentage is much higher for younger women at 20% than it is for young men with a lower 14.5% rate.

But the female percentage for Cyprus is lower than the EU average but the rate for men is higher.

Around one in six (or 16.5%) young people aged 20-34 were neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET) in the EU in 2018, this correlates to around 15 million people, according to Eurostat.

Cyprus’ slightly higher rate of 17.4% ranks it ninth in the table, while Greece is second with 26.8% and Italy top with 28.9%.

Meanwhile, the lowest NEET rates for people aged 20–34 in 2018 were in Sweden (8.0%), the Netherlands (8.4%), Luxembourg (9.9%) and Malta (10.1%).

For women aged 20-34, the NEET rate was 20.9%, compared with 12.2% for 20-34-year-old men.