Unemployment benefit pay drops 66% in November

Unemployment benefit payments recorded the second highest annual drop in the last three years, down by 66.4% in November, compared to the same month in 2013.

According to Social Insurance Department data, EUR 4.8 mln were paid from the unemployment benefit fund in November when the national jobless level had dipped to just below 17%, compared to EUR 14.3 mln a year earlier.

The biggest annual decrease unemployment benefits was in dropped 68.1% year-on-year.

During the January to November 2014 period, payments of unemployment benefit decreased by 21.1% to EUR 111.5 mln from 141.4 mln in the corresponding period of 2013, the year when a EUR 10 bln bailout plan was agreed with Cyprus’s international lenders (EU, ECB, IMF).