Cyprus graduates’ employment rate at 81.4 per cent

The percentage of graduates in Cyprus that find work within a year of completing education was recorded by Eurostat to be at 81.4 per cent, just below the bloc’s average of 82 per cent.

The data showed that Cyprus’ rate is largely in line with the bloc, however it fares significantly better than some of its fellow Mediterannean states.

Indeed, Greece’s rate was recorded as being 66.1 per cent, Italy’s at 65.2 per cent and France’s at 78.6 per cent.

Notably, however, Malta came in with 91 per cent.

The fellow island nation came in fourth place – just behind Luxembourg and the Netherlands’ 93 per cent and Germany’s 92 per cent.

At the bottom of the charts are Italy, Greece and Romania (70 per cent).

Eurostat added that the employment rate for those aged 20-34 in the EU rose by an average of seven percentage points (pp) between 2014-2022 – showing a consistent rising trend interrupted only by the Covid pandemic.

The employment rate in 2022 marked a new peak, surpassing the previous high of 81 per cent achieved in 2018, a rate that had remained unchanged in 2019.

The employment rate for recent male graduates has consistently been higher than that for recent female graduates. However, in 2022, the gap was narrowed down to 2 pp, marking the smallest disparity recorded in the eight-year span from 2014 to 2022. Meanwhile, the largest disparity between 2014 and 2022 was recorded in 2019 (4 pp).

The disparities in employment rates may be explained by the nature of the fields studied, as there are differences in labour market demand. Women and men tend to study different fields – for example, a higher proportion of science and technology students tend to be male.