THEY ARE LOOKING FOR A FULL-TIME JOB BUT FIND PART-TIME - THE TRAP RECORDED BY EUROSTAT - Filenews 26/10 by Theano Thiopoulou
A deep structural contradiction characterizes the Cypriot labour market, as revealed by the official Eurostat data for 2025. Cyprus has one of the highest rates of general employment in the European Union.
Specifically, 67.2% of the total population aged 15 to 74 is working (excluding the underemployed). This is a performance that far exceeds the European average, which is limited to 60.3%.
However, a careful look at the qualitative characteristics of the market's sluggishness (slack) brings to light a completely different reality for working conditions. The country's workforce is faced with the trap of part-time employment, which it does not choose voluntarily.
According to Eurostat, part-time underemployed people account for 18.3% of the unfilled job supply in the EU. Cyprus, however, jumps to the top of the relevant list.
28.1% of the total labour market deficit on the island concerns people who already work part-time, but wish to work more hours and are immediately available to do so. With this performance, Cyprus ranks in the top four EU countries with the biggest problem of underemployment, following the Netherlands (43.8%), Ireland (34.7%) and Belgium (30.4%).
The key difference, however, lies in the motivation of the employees. In the Netherlands and Ireland, part-time work is mainly linked to participation in education or training programmes. In contrast, in Cyprus and Belgium, the main reason for underemployment is common and purely economic, workers say they are driven there because it is absolutely impossible to find a full-time job in the market.
The evidence debunks the myth of citizen inaction. Cyprus records one of the lowest rates in the EU (11.6%) in the category of people who are available for work but not actively searching.
On the other hand, countries such as Italy record huge percentages of discouraged workers who have stopped looking due to lack of opportunities (47.2%), while Germany reaches 27.5%, Estonia 28.1%, Romania 25.5%, Sweden 25.1% and the EU average 18.7%. The fact that Cyprus keeps this indicator so low proves that Cypriot part-timers remain extremely active and seek something better every day, but are necessarily limited to reduced hours and lower wages. In general, more than half of the underemployed in the EU reported that they could not find a full-time job.
In the EU, the main reasons for unavailability were education or training (31.4% of jobseekers but not immediately available), caring responsibilities (17.8%) and the same illness or disability (15.3%) in 2025. However, these figures vary by country. Caring responsibilities were the main reason for unavailability (83.1%) in Czechia, while in Sweden and Finland the main reason was education or training (72.5% and 65.2% respectively).
