A share of 13.8% of young people aged 15 to 29 in Cyprus were neither in employment nor in education or training in 2023, compared to 11.2 on average in the EU, according to data released by Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union. Cyprus had the fifth highest share in the EU after Romania, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. However, the share has been decreasing steadily in Cyprus, in parallel with an overall decrease in the EU. The share recorded in Cyprus in 2023 marks a decrease of 0.9 percentage points (pp) compared with 2022, compared with a 0.5 pp decrease in the EU average. Over the last ten years, there was a noticeable decrease in the neither in employment nor in education or training rate among people aged 15 to 29 in the EU. In 2013, the EU rate stood at 16.1% and it has decreased steadily since then, with the only exception being the COVID-affected 2020 when an increase was reported (from 12.6% in 2019 to 13.8% in 2020, followed by 13.1% in 2021). Cyprus also saw a significant decrea se over the same period, from 20.4% in 2013. Cyprus also saw an increase both in 2020 (to 15.3$ from 14.1% in 2019) as well as in 2021 (to 15.4%), before decreasing to 14.7% in 2022. In 2023, these rates among young adults varied considerably across EU countries, ranging from 4.8% in the Netherlands to 19.3% in Romania. Reducing this rate is one of the targets of the European Pillar of Social Rights. The goal is to lower this rate among young people aged 15 - 29 to 9% by 2030. Data show that, in 2023, a third of the EU countries were already below the 2030 target of 9%, namely the Netherlands (4.8%), Sweden (5.7%), Malta (7.5%), Slovenia (7.8%), Luxembourg (8.5%), Ireland (8.5%), Denmark (8.6%), Germany (8.8%) and Portugal (8.9%). In most EU countries, there were differences between the shares among young women and young men. In 2023, 12.5% of young women aged 15-29 in the EU were neither in employment nor education or training, while the corresponding share among young men was 10.1%. The lowest rates for young men and women were both in the Netherlands: 4.0% for young men and 5.6% for young women. In Cyprus, the rate was higher for young women than for young men (14.8% versus 12.7%). The highest rate for young men was recorded in Greece (14.8%), and the highest for women in Romania (24.8%). The shares of young women neither in employment nor education or training were lower than the associated share of men only in Estonia (8.9% versus 10.2%) and Belgium (9.5% versus 9.8%), while Portugal, Spain, Finland and Sweden recorded roughly the same shares between young men and young women. Source: Cyprus News Agency
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