Romanians and Bulgarians biggest EU movers to Cyprus

15,000 workers have come to Cyprus in the last three years, according to the social insurance department.

The countries that most of these workers come from are Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.

Romanian workers in the last three years have increased by 7,852 and the total number of Bulgarian workers has increased by 5,427.  The total number registered of EU workers in 2007 was 37,470 while   the registered total as of April 2010 is 53,179.

The figures show that in October 2007 Greece had the most workers in Cyprus from an EU country with 8,622,

In the past three years despite the poor economic developments in Greece, that number has grown by only 893 to 9,515. Now Greeks are third in line of EU nationals that come to work in Cyprus behind Bulgarians and Romanians.

Greeks seem to come to Cyprus for a variety of jobs. There are 1,728 Greeks that are employed within construction work, while there are 985 that work in public administration and only four registered as domestic helpers.

Bulgarians are now the second largest group of EU workers in Cyprus. In 2007 there were 4,479 Bulgarian nationals in Cyprus with 811 working in the restaurant trade. That number has jumped to 9,906 by 2010 with the largest number 2,133 working in wholesale, retail and service trades.

The largest jump however has been made by Romanian nationals, in 2007 there were 6,155 Romanians working in Cyprus with the largest number 1,706 working in the construction trade. That number has grown to 14,007  with the largest number 3660 still doing construction work.

According to the latest unemployment figured supplied by the European Commission via the site Eurostat, Cyprus has an unemployment figure of 7.1 per cent (July 2010)  Romania has an unemployment figure of 7.4 per cent (March 2010) Bulgaria has an unemployment figure of 9.7 per cent (July 2010) and Greece has an unemployment number of 11 per cent ( July 2010).

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.