Government employment in January up by 0.8%

Total government employment in January rose by 440 persons or 0.8 per cent year on year due to the hiring of temporary employees, data released by the Statistical Service of Cyprus (Cystat) on Thursday showed.

According to Cystat, permanent staff decreased by 976 (-3.5 per cent), from 27,810 to 26,834, whereas casual staff increased by 1,553 (9.6 per cent) reaching 17,695 compared to 16,142 persons in January 2020.

Compared to January 2020 an increase is observed in Education staff (4.7 per cent) and in Civil Service staff (0.2 per cent), while staff in Security Forces fell by 0.9 per cent. The number of permanent employees declined in all three categories with the highest reduction observed in Civil Service staff (-3.9 per cent). On the contrary, in all three categories of casual staff there was an increase, with the largest seen in Education staff (23.6 per cent).

According, to Cystat, compared to December 2020, an increase was seen in Education staff (1.0 per cent) while a decrease was seen in Civil Service staff (-0.2 per cent) and in Security Forces staff (-0.1 per cent). In all three categories of permanent staff there was a decrease, with the highest seen in Civil Service staff (-0.3 per cent). In casual staff an increase was seen in Education staff (2.8 per cent) whereas a decrease was seen in Security Forces staff (-0.1 per cent).