According to the Services, the number of unemployed people reached 37,874 last month – before seasonal adjustments – breaking a new record.
“Based on data corrected for seasonal fluctuations that show unemployment trends, the number of registered unemployed people in February 2012 increased to 32,827 persons, compared to 32,247 the previous month,” it said.
Of those, 68 per cent are Greek Cypriots, 25 per cent European and 7.0 per cent Turkish Cypriots as well as third country nationals.
There are over 8,000 more unemployed people – a 27.1 per cent increase – than February last year. The most unemployed people – 9,133 – were cleaners, messengers and unqualified workers. Private employees and salesmen came second, with 7,537 redundancies, followed by typists and cashiers, of whom 5,558 lost their jobs.
The majority of people (16,020) without jobs are secondary school graduates.
Almost 12,000 of the unemployed are living in the Larnaca and Famagusta districts, while over 11,000 of them are living in Nicosia. Paphos has the least, 5,610.
According to Eurostat, unemployment reached 9.6 per cent in January, presenting the second largest increase in the whole of Europe, after Greece.
Labour Minister Sotiroula Charalambous yesterday told the House Labour Committee that the government paid out €98.8 million in unemployment benefits and €31 million in redundancies in 2011 alone.
Source: Cyprus-Mail
Published on March 6, 2012
