Cyprus has the third highest share of part-time workers in the EU because they cannot find a full-time job, Eurostat figures published on Wednesday showed.
Across the EU member states, the share of people who worked part-time for this reason in 2018 varied significantly. The highest proportion was reported in Greece (70 per cent), followed by Italy (66 per cent), Cyprus (65 per cent) and Bulgaria (59 per cent). The lowest shares were recorded in Estonia (6 per cent), followed by Belgium, Czechia and Slovenia (7 per cent each).
In Cyprus, 72.5 per cent of the men and 60.3 per cent women who could not find a full-time job chose part-time work.
Some 11.5 per cent of Cypriots said they chose to work part-time because they had family or other personal responsibilities, 8.1 per cent were looking after children or other relatives, 5.8 per cent gave being in education or training as a reason and 7.3 per cent had other reasons.
Around 31.2 million women and 9.5 million men aged 20 to 64 worked part-time in the European Union in 2018. This represented 19 per cent of total employment.
On average in the EU, more men (36 per cent) reported that they worked part-time because of not finding a full-time job than women (23 per cent). On the other hand, working part-time to look after children or incapacitated adults was reported more often by women (29 per cent) than men (6 per cent).
