Part-time work declines in Cyprus, gender gap narrows

In 2023, the share of part-time workers in Cyprus for those aged 20-64 was at 8%, a slight drop from 9.1% in 2022. This trend of declining part-time work has been consistent in Cyprus since 2014 when the share stood at 13.3%. In comparison, the EU-wide part-time employment rate was significantly higher at 17.1% in 2023, reflecting a slight increase from 16.9% in 2022.

Breaking down by gender, Cyprus saw a notable decrease in part-time work for both men and women over the last decade. For men, the share dropped from 10.2% in 2014 to 5.5% in 2023. Among women, it fell from 16.5% in 2014 to 10.6% in 2023. This drop in part-time work was more pronounced in Cyprus than in the EU, where part-time employment also decreased for women but at a slower rate.

Family status plays a role in part-time employment in Cyprus. Among employed women aged 25-54, those with children are slightly more likely to work part-time (10.5%) compared to those without children (8.5%). For men, however, those without children work part-time more frequently (5.1%) than those with children (3.3%).

These figures suggest that the difference in part-time work rates between men and women with children in Cyprus is relatively modest. The gap is 7.2 percentage points in Cyprus, whereas it’s a substantial 26.8 percentage points across the EU. Cyprus shows much smaller gender and parental status gaps compared to EU countries with higher rates, such as Austria, where 69.2% of women with children work part-time compared to only 8% of men with children.

Overall, Cyprus has a lower reliance on part-time employment than the EU average, with a decade-long trend of decline, especially among women.