Cyprus’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged up to 3.9 per cent in July 2026, from 3.8 per cent in June, according to a report from Eurostat.

Despite the monthly increase, Cyprus’ unemployment rate remained well below its level of 4.3 per cent in July 2025, indicating an improvement over the past year.

Eurostat estimated that around 21,000 people were unemployed in Cyprus in July, compared with approximately 20,000 in June and May and 20,000 in April.

The number of unemployed people in Cyprus was therefore around 1,000 higher than in each of the previous three months, but approximately 2,000 lower than a year earlier.

Cyprus continued to record a considerably lower unemployment rate than the EU and euro area as a whole.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 6.1 per cent across the EU in July, unchanged from June but up from 6.0 per cent in July 2025.

In the euro area, unemployment stood at 6.4 per cent, also unchanged from June and slightly higher than the 6.3 per cent recorded a year earlier.

Eurostat estimated that 13.516 million people were unemployed across the EU in July, including 11.264 million in the euro area.

Compared with June, the number of unemployed people fell by 41,000 in the EU, while remaining unchanged in the euro area.

However, compared with July 2025, unemployment increased by 296,000 in the EU and by 175,000 in the euro area.

The latest figures are based on the International Labour Organisation definition of unemployment, which counts people as unemployed if they have no job, have actively sought work during the previous four weeks and are available to start work within the following two weeks.

Eurostat said unemployment figures were supplemented by additional labour market indicators covering groups including underemployed part-time workers, people seeking work who are not immediately available and people available to work but not seeking employment.

These additional indicators are published alongside European Union Labour Force Survey data.

The latest available EU Labour Force Survey data cover the first quarter of 2026, while figures for the second quarter are due to be released on September 11, 2026.

Youth unemployment across the EU also improved in July, Eurostat reported.

There were 2.930 million unemployed people aged under 25 in the EU, including 2.371 million in the euro area.

The EU youth unemployment rate fell to 15.1 per cent in July from 15.6 per cent in June, while the euro area rate declined to 14.9 per cent from 15.0 per cent.

Youth unemployment therefore fell by 98,000 in the EU and by 26,000 in the euro area compared with June.

Despite the monthly improvement, youth unemployment was still higher than a year earlier, increasing by 29,000 in the EU and by 40,000 in the euro area compared with July 2025.

Cyprus does not have monthly youth unemployment data for July at this point because figures for the island, as well as those for Belgium, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia are provided on a quarterly basis.

The latest available figure for Cyprus showed a youth unemployment rate of 11.9 per cent in June 2026, unchanged from May. This was down from 13 per cent in July 2025.

Cyprus had approximately 3,000 unemployed people aged under 25 in both May and June, compared with around 4,000 in July 2025.

Across the EU, the unemployment rate for women was 6.3 per cent in July, unchanged from June, while the rate for men was 5.9 per cent, also unchanged.

In the euro area, unemployment stood at 6.6 per cent for women and 6.2 per cent for men, with both rates remaining stable compared with June.

Eurostat’s latest figures therefore show that Cyprus continues to have a substantially lower overall unemployment rate than the EU and euro area, although the national rate has edged higher since May, when it stood at 3.7 per cent.

Cyprus’ unemployment rate was 3.8 per cent in April, before falling to 3.7 per cent in May, rising to 3.8 per cent in June and reaching 3.9 per cent in July.

The figures nevertheless leave Cyprus’ unemployment rate 0.4 percentage points below its level of a year earlier.