Press Releases

The unemployed persons, registered at the District Labour Offices on the last day of April 2020, reached 28.591 persons. Based on the seasonally adjusted data that show the trend of unemployment, the number of registered unemployed for April 2020 increased to 30.461 persons in comparison to 21.951 in the previous month. (Table 1)

In comparison with April 2019, an increase of 8.276 persons or 40,7% was recorded, attributed mainly to the sectors of accommodation and food service activities (an increase of 5.785), trade (an increase of 928), transportation and storage (an increase of 407), administrative and support service activities (an increase of 369), professional, scientific and technical activities (an increase of 342), arts, entertainment and recreation (an increase of 229) as well as to the decrease of 415 persons recorded as newcomers in the labour market. (Table 2)

It is pointed out that according to the information of the Department of Labour, the comparison of the data of the months March and April 2020 with the data of the previous months is not considered safe. This is due to the implementation by the Public Employment Service of the extraordinary measures announced by the Ministry of Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance for automatic renewals of registered unemployed and new registrations of unemployed people without their physical presence in order to avoid the spread of coronavirus.

Methodological notes

Definitions

Registered Unemployed

The number of registered unemployed concerns the persons aged 15 years and over who apply at the District and Local Labour Offices of the Department of Labour to seek employment and are registered as unemployed. These persons have to be able and available for work and must be actively looking for one. The monthly number of registered unemployed concerns the persons who during the last day of the month have an active application for seeking employment.

The number of registered unemployed does not included self-employed or persons who seek part-time employment as well as persons who seek employment in certain areas or for a specific employer.

Seasonally Adjusted data

Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that removes the seasonal component of a time series, making more visible the underlying trend in the change of a characteristic. CYSTAT uses the JDemetra+ 2.2.2 software which was developed by Eurostat. Seasonally adjusted series are produced by the TRAMO&SEATS algorithm. It should be noted that due to seasonal adjustment the whole series with the monthly estimates is recalculated every time a new month is added in time series. As a result, estimations for the previous months are often revised. In March 2020 there has also been a readjustment of the applied model.

Classification System

Registered unemployed by economic activity are published based on the classification system NACE Rev. 2.

For further information visitStatistical Service (CYSTAT) Website, subtheme Unemployment or contact Ms Aristi Ioannidou: tel: +35725871033, email.: aioannidou@cystat.mof.gov.cy or Ms Eleni Christodoulidou: tel: +35722602142, email: echristodoulidou@cystat.mof.gov.cy

(IK/SCH)