Increases in job vacancies are driven by demand for labour in the hospitality industry, skilled workers, and financial service providers.

According to data released by CyStat, job vacancies at the end of the second quarter jumped to 7,397 from 4,172 the previous year.

The job vacancy rate in Q2 2021 was 2.6%, while the job vacancy rate in the previous quarter and Q2 2020 was 2.0% and 1.2%, respectively.

The largest job vacancy rates from May to June were in: Accommodation and Food Service Activities (7.1%), Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply (5.5%), Human Health and Social Work (4.9%) and Manufacturing (3.5%).

Cyprus’ hospitality sector is experiencing one of its worst worker shortages, with job vacancies at their highest in recent years, forcing establishments to reduce operations, a leading business lobby group told the Financial Mirror.

Chris Christodoulou, President of the Cyprus Franchisee Association, said the pandemic had altered the labour market. As a result, European staff have returned home, while Cypriots find better-paying opportunities in other sectors.

“This combined with an improvement of their home economies, made people from countries like Poland, Romania and other Balkan countries who used to come to the island to work in the sector, prefer to stay home,” Christodoulou said.

At the same time, Cypriots are leaving hospitality to pursue better-paying jobs in other sectors that are also suffering staff shortages.

The Federation of Employers, and Industrialists (OEB), said the government would have to address the matter by reorganising the education system to meet demand in a changing labour landscape.

Financial services

Career Finders recruitment agency told the Financial Mirror that they had had one of their busiest summers.

Career Finders partner Sophie Aristodemou said there is a growing demand for employees in service sectors including, Administration, Accounting, Finance, Banking, Corporate Services, FX, Information Technology, Legal and Oil & Gas.

“The market is now waking up after a real downturn brought on by the COVID pandemic.

“We had seen many businesses not knowing how to proceed during the pandemic, leading to a massive silence in the job market,” said Aristodemou.

She said many service providers did not have the technical ability to have people working from home.

“However, many companies are now finding their bearings and have sorted out issues with supporting people to work from home, going back to some sort of normalcy.

Aristodemou said the coronavirus pandemic had altered the job market, as more business is now carried out online.

“The digitalisation of transactions along with the change in work trends has created many technical roles, increasing the demand for people working with payment solutions.”

She added the demand for accounting services will never go out of fashion, adding the sector always tops the vacancy list.

Source: Financial Mirror