Press Releases

The unemployed persons, registered at the District Labour Offices on the last day of May 2020, reached 29.604 persons. Based on the seasonally adjusted data that show the trend of unemployment, the number of registered unemployed for May 2020 increased to 34.082 persons in comparison to 32.000 in the previous month. (Table 1)

In comparison with May 2019, an increase of 11.997 persons or 68,1% was recorded, attributed mainly to the sectors of accommodation and food service activities (an increase of 7.185), trade (an increase of 1.504), transportation and storage (an increase of 757), administrative and support service activities (an increase of 615), professional, scientific and technical activities (an increase of 442) and arts, entertainment and recreation (an increase of 349). (Table 2)

It is noted that according to the information of the Department of Labour, the comparison of the data since March 2020 and onwards, with the data of the previous months is not considered objective. 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.

Further information:

Statistical Service (CYSTAT) Website, subtheme Unemployment

Contact

Aristi Ioannidou: Tel: +35725871033, Email.: aioannidou@cystat.mof.gov.cy

Eleni Christodoulidou: Tel: +35722602142, Email: echristodoulidou@cystat.mof.gov.cy

(EH)