Almost one-third of Cypriots have tertiary education

Almost one-third of the Cypriot labour force has completed tertiary education, according to  the Statistical Service’s “Labour Force Survey” for 2005.

The report provides detailed data on the employed and unemployed population which are analysed by gender, age, education, branch of economic activity and occupational group. Data are also presented on part-time employment as well as for second job holders and the weekly hours of work.

The main findings of the survey are as follows.

The labour force (i.e. employed and unemployed persons) amounted to 367,524 persons in 2005 consisting of 56.2% men and 43.8% women.

The number of employed persons reached 348,031 and the employment rate for persons 15-64 years was 68.5 %. The corresponding rate for males stood at 79.2 % while that for females was much lower at 58.4%. Both rates, however, are among the highest in the European Union.

The labour force of Cyprus has a relatively high educational background since almost one-third (31.4%) of the workforce has completed tertiary education and 39.5% has completed upper secondary education.

About 31,000 people or 8.9% of the employed worked on a part-time basis and 52.9% of these reported that they did not want full-time employment and only 27.9% reported that they could not find a full-time job.

About 6.1% of the working population or 21,114 persons reported having a second job and a large proportion of these (51.8%) chose agriculture as a sideline.

(Many Cypriots go back to the village from which they or their parents hail in orderto cultivate trees and so on.)

The unemployment rate amounted to 5.3% of the labour force, which was lower for males 4.4% and higher for females 6.5%. The highest rate of unemployment was observed among young persons below 25 years of age where it accounted for 13.9% of the labour force of the same age group.

The report is available for sale at the Government Printing Office in Nicosia at the price of CYP 8.00 per copy. The report is also available for download free of charge from the website of the Statistical Service, under the Section “Publications” (Category: Annual Publications, Theme: Labour, Subtheme: Labour).