Forty per cent of Cypriots have sedentary jobs

Almost four out of ten people (39.7 per cent) in Cyprus work while sitting down, only slightly higher than the EU average of 38.6 per cent.

According to a newly published Eurostat report for 2017, this includes people using computers, staff in call centres and vehicle drivers.

A further 30 per cent of workers in the EU have jobs which require a moderate physical effort such as nursing, plumbing and carrying light loads. The figure for Cyprus is 37.5 per cent.

One in five workers in the EU spend most of their working time standing up, including teachers and shop assistants, while in Cyprus just 14 per cent hold such jobs.

The remaining people have jobs that mostly involve heavy labour or are physically demanding, such as heavy construction work, loading and digging.

The numbers vary according to member states. For example, the majority of people employed in the Netherlands (55 per cent), Germany (54 per cent) and Luxembourg (52 per cent) spend their working time mostly sitting down.

Around half of the workforce in Lithuania (50 per cent) and Greece (46 per cent) are in jobs that mostly involve moderate physical effort.

When it comes to occupations that mostly involve standing up, Spain (43 per cent) and Romania (36 per cent) have the highest shares of the EU workforce.

The two EU member states with the highest proportion of people in jobs that are physically demanding are Greece (22 per cent) and Poland (16 per cent).

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.