The number of employed persons was 366,374 and the employment rate 53.2% (males 58.1%, females 48.7%) in comparison to 352,017 persons (51.8%) in the corresponding quarter of 2016.

The number of unemployed persons amounted to 57,420 and the unemployment rate to 13.5% of the labour force (males 13.5%, females 13.6%) in comparison with 57,582 persons (14.1%) in the corresponding quarter of 2016.

For the age group 20-64, the employment rate was 68.5%. The rate for males was 73.6% and for females 63.8%. In the corresponding quarter of 2016 the rate was 66.7% (males 71.3%, females 62.5%). For the age group 55-64 the employment rate was 52.0% in comparison to 49.7% in the corresponding quarter of 2016.

According to the distribution of employment by sector, the biggest percentage of employed persons was in Services (79.5%), followed by Manufacturing (17.7%) and Agriculture (2.8%). For the 1st quarter of 2016, the corresponding percentages were: Services 79.4%, Manufacturing 16.8% and Agriculture 3.8%.

The share of part-time employment to total employment was 14.5% or 53,045 persons (males 11.4%, females 17.8%). The corresponding rate for the 1st quarter of 2016 was 14.5% (males 12.3%, females 16.8%).

85.7% or 313,946 of the total employed persons were employees, of which 13.4% (42,162 persons) had a temporary job. In the corresponding quarter of 2016 employees accounted for 85.3% of total employment of which 15.6% had a temporary job.

For young persons aged 15-24 years old, the unemployment rate was 26.7% of the labour force of the same age group (males 27.9%, females 25.7%) in comparison to 29.8% (males 31.2%, females 28.6%) in the corresponding quarter of last year.

As far as the duration of unemployment is concerned, 48.8% of the total unemployed persons searched for a job for a period of less than 6 months, 12.2% for a period of 6-11 months, whereas a percentage of 39.0% were long-term unemployed. The corresponding rates for the 1st quarter of 2016 were 41.0%, 17.8% and 41.2%.

Source: InCyprus