Employment in Cyprus followed an upward path in the fourth quarter of 2016, the Cyprus Statistical Service said on Friday.

The number of employed persons rose to 374,651 and the employment rate 54.8% (males 60.1%, females 49.9%) compared with 371,916 persons (54.5%) and 361.433 persons (53.4%) in the 3rd quarter of 2016 and in the 4th quarter of 2015 respectively.

Unemployed persons reached 55,516 corresponding to an unemployment rate of 12.9% of the labour force (males 12.1%, females 13.8%) compared ith 55,573 or 13.0% in the previous quarter of 2016 and 52,542 persons or 12.7% in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Youth unemployment remains high amounting to 29.8% of the labour force compared to 29.5% in the corresponding quarter of last year.
A total of 39.6% of the total unemployed persons searched for a job for a period of less than 6 months, 16.0% for a period of 6-11 months, whereas a percentage of 44.4% were long-term unemployed. The corresponding rates for the 4th quarter of 2015 were 32.6%, 19.1% and 48.3%.