Foreign workers continued to meet job market demands in Cyprus last year, with newly released data from the Social Insurance Services showing a further rise in employment.
The total number of active insured individuals in the Social Insurance Fund increased to 580,023 in 2023, up from 555,830 in 2022, according to official statistics.
This growth was largely driven by an influx of third-country nationals, whose numbers rose to 132,196, representing 22.8% of all active insured individuals. In 2022, foreign-insured individuals totalled 109,472, or 19.7% of the insured population.
When combined with EU nationals, the foreign labour force accounted for 40% of those insured in the fund last year, up from 37.8% in 2022.
However, the number of insured EU nationals slightly decreased to 99,372 in 2023 from 100,882 in 2022, with their share of the total insured dropping from 18.1% to 17.1%.
Greek Cypriot contributors saw a modest increase in absolute numbers to 345,302, but their share of the total insured fell to 59.5% from 61.6% in 2022.
The figures encompass employees in both private and public sectors, as well as 31,139 self-employed individuals. Voluntarily insured persons make up a negligible 0.1% of the total.
The number of Turkish Cypriot insured individuals remained stable at 3,153, unchanged from 2022, and accounting for 0.6% of all insured persons.
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