She said that 1,946 graduates of secondary and post-secondary education and 4,894 university graduates joined the HRDA projects that subsidised the employ of out-of-work young people in businesses or public organisations.

Emilianides noted that in February 2009, the HRDA implemented a Special Prevention-Action Plan at an estimated cost of €65 million with the number of participants to date reaching 39,000.

The Minister said the crisis has mostly affected young people, but appeared confident that the targets set for the projects will be accomplished.

In 2013 the Authority spent €21.6 million on training schemes. A total of 53,493 persons took part in 5,726 training programmes funded or approved by the Authority, said its Chairwoman Niki Mattheou.

According to the latest figures of the EU’s statistical service Eurostat, unemployment in Cyprus fell to 15.4% in August or 67,000 people, compared with 15.7% in July and 72,000 or 16.6% in August 2013. The jobless rate among the under 25s was 37.1% in June, or 16,000 people.

Source: Financial Mirror