Filenews 1 September 2025 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Cypriot graduates of tertiary or upper secondary education find it easy or difficult to find work, it is an issue that concerns thousands of young people for their professional future, and Eurostat data provide the picture.
According to the European Statistical Office, 8 out of 10 recent graduates of secondary, higher and higher education in Cyprus entered the labour market in the previous year and the numbers show that occupational absorption was relatively easy.
Cyprus ranks 14th out of the 27 Member States of the European Union, with the direct occupational absorption rate of secondary or tertiary education graduates aged 20-34 at 83.5%, exceeding the European average of 82.3%.
Data released by Eurostat show that there are differences between countries, with the highest employment rates recorded in the Netherlands (91.6%) and Germany (90.5%).
The lowest employment rates were recorded in Italy (69.6%), Greece (73.2%) and Romania (75.0%). In the other countries, the employment rate for 2024 was: Malta 88.6%, Slovakia 88.3%, Hungary 88%, Ireland 87.7%, Czech Republic and Austria 86.5%, Sweden 85.8%, Denmark 85%, Slovenia 84.6%, Poland 84.5%, Estonia 84.4%, Finland 82.5%, Croatia 81.4%, Bulgaria 80.9%, Belgium and Portugal 79.7%, Spain 79%, Lithuania 78.1%, Luxembourg 77.9%, Latvia 76.9%, France 76.8%.
The report notes that the level of education plays a decisive role when recent graduates are looking for work. Graduates with tertiary education recorded the highest employment rates and were generally better protected from the risks of unemployment than their peers who entered the labour market with lower levels of education.
