Eurostat on Friday reported that the EU employment rate for people aged 20 to 64 held steady at 76.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2025.
This latest release comes shortly after recent state statistical service (Cystat) data showing that Cyprus is performing far above the EU average in employment, yet facing a slight rise in registered unemployment in November of this year.
Eurostat stated that “labour market slack stood at 11.0 per cent of the extended labour force in the third quarter of 2025”.
It added that the figure, which includes all persons with an unmet need for work, remained unchanged from the previous quarter.
Across the union, Malta recorded the largest quarterly increase in the employment rate at 1.2 percentage points, followed by Estonia at 0.8 points and Croatia, Portugal and Romania at 0.6 points each.
Employment remained unchanged in Denmark and the Netherlands.
At the same time, decreases were reported in 10 member states, led by Belgium with a fall of 0.7 points and Luxembourg and Ireland with declines of 0.5 points each.
In Cyprus, the domestic labour picture painted by Cystat data shows a mixed but largely resilient environment.
The Labour Force Survey for the third quarter of 2025 showed that the labour force reached 530,992 persons, representing 65.6 per cent of the population, compared with 516,127 persons or 65.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2024.
The number of employed persons rose to 509,211, giving Cyprus an employment rate of 62.9 per cent, slightly higher than the 62.7 per cent recorded a year earlier.
Among people aged 20 to 64, Cyprus performed strongly, recording an employment rate of 81.6 per cent, a rise from 80.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2024.
The male employment rate in this age group reached 86.6 per cent and the female rate 76.8 per cent, both improving marginally compared with last year’s figures.
For people aged 55 to 64, employment stood at 70.9 per cent, almost unchanged from 71.0 per cent in 2024.
Employment in Cyprus remained heavily concentrated in the services sector at 81.4 per cent, followed by manufacturing at 16.3 per cent and agriculture at 2.3 per cent.
Part-time employment represented 8.8 per cent of total employment, amounting to 44,607 people, with women twice as likely as men to work part time.
What is more, Cystat reported that 90.2 per cent of all employed persons were employees, including 71,008 individuals on temporary contracts, representing 15.5 per cent of salaried workers.
Unemployment also showed notable trends. The Labour Force Survey indicated that 21,781 people were unemployed in the third quarter of 2025, placing the unemployment rate at 4.1 per cent, down from 4.5 per cent in the same quarter of 2024.
For young people aged 15 to 24, unemployment reached 13.1 per cent, rising from 12.1 per cent a year earlier.
Short-term unemployment remained dominant, with 63.8 per cent of unemployed persons having searched for work for less than six months, an improvement from 56.3 per cent last year.
Meanwhile, long-term unemployment fell to 19.4 per cent from 23.5 per cent in 2024.
Separate Cystat figures on registered unemployment pointed to a more recent monthly increase.
On the last day of November 2025, the number of registered unemployed stood at 10,924 persons, while seasonally adjusted data showed an increase to 10,078 persons, up from 9,723 in October 2025.
Cystat explained that the decrease of 1.5 per cent year-on-year is mainly attributed to construction, manufacturing, trade, financial and insurance activities, as well as fewer newcomers entering the labour market.
