Core unemployment rises as monthly figure falls.Byline: Charles Charalambous THE NUMBER of officially-registered unemployed rose 64 per cent compared to May 2008 and now stands at 15,158, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. figures released on Thursday by the Statistical Service. The figure for the period January-May was 37 per cent up on the equivalent period last year. The monthly figure for May showed a drop of 948 from April's high of 16,106, largely due to the seasonal return to work of hotel and restaurant workers, plus a reduction in the number of unemployed public administrators. One worrying aspect in terms of social impact is the fact that almost 43 per cent of the May total are heads of families in the 30-49 age group. The 6,000 rise compared to last year occurred mainly in construction (up by 1,815), retail (up 970), hotels and restaurants (705), real estate and business services (614) and processing (494). The latest figures drew criticism from DISY DISY Dimokratikos Synagermos (Greek: Democratic Rally, Cyprus) Vice Chairman Averoff Neophytou, who said that "unemployment is a problem for us, even though the government continues to prettify pret·ti·fy tr.v. pret·ti·fied, pret·ti·fy·ing, pret·ti·fies To make pretty or prettier, especially in a superficial or insubstantial way. pret the situation". Labour Minister Sotiroulla Charalambous rejected Neophytou's criticism, saying late on Thursday that comparing the latest figures to May 2008 "without taking into account the various worldwide economic conditions, and the impact these have on the growth rate, can only be interpreted as an attempt to nullify nul·li·fy tr.v. nul·li·fied, nul·li·fy·ing, nul·li·fies 1. To make null; invalidate. 2. To counteract the force or effectiveness of. and disorientate disorientate or disorient Verb [-tating, -tated] or -enting, -ented to cause (someone) to lose his or her bearings disorientation n ." She added: "The government cares about citizens, and its aim is to maintain low levels of unemployment. The measures we have announced are producing results, which is demonstrated by the fact that for the second successive month the hotel and tourism industry has absorbed more unemployed workers." Some 22 per cent of the total May figure are officially classified as cleaners, junior office staff and unskilled workers. The SEK SEK In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Swedish Krona. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. trade union said in a press statement that "the fact that a large proportion of unemployed are unskilled workers is not unrelated to the employment of foreign workers foreign workers Those who work in a foreign country without initially intending to settle there and without the benefits of citizenship in the host country. Some are recruited to supplement the workforce of a host country for a limited term or to provide skills on a ", mainly from countries outside the European Union European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community . SEK called for an intensification of attempts to clamp down on illegal employment, and an acceleration of public sector projects in such as way as to create new legal employment opportunities. Meanwhile, the trade unions have agreed to a decrease from 1 July in the automatic wage indexation system known as CoLA (ATA (1) (AT Attachment) The specification for IDE drives. See IDE. (2) See analog telephone adapter. ATA - Advanced Technology Attachment in Greek). This will be the first decrease since 1999, and is due to a fall in the basic cost of living this year compared to the second half of last year. The difference will be of the order of 1.5 per cent of low wages and around 5.8 per cent on average wages. This will be the second drop in earnings for employees, following the 0.5 per cent increase in social security contributions introduced on 1 April. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2009 Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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