NICOSIA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus is close to its target of achieving a full employment for the first time since the 2013 economic crisis that sent unemployment rate to a 16-percent peak, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said on Thursday.
Georgiades, invoking yet unpublished data prepared by Eurostat, the EU statistical service, said unemployment rate in Cyprus dropped to 6.6 percent in June this year, down from 8.3 percent at the end of June, 2018.
"Cyprus is very close to achieving the target of full employment and to the creation of conditions for legislating on a minimum salary," Georgiades said in his Twitter account.
He added, however, that fixing a minimum salary level has to be made "with a scientific method and validation."
This was a reference to a demand by opposition parties, mostly left wing AKEL party, for setting a minimum salary to protect low-paid workers, mainly sales people in retail shops and in recreation spots.
However, the government resisted the pressure, arguing that fixing a minimum salary level would not help at a time of the unemployment above the acceptable level.
Full employment is usually set by governments at a level that would help a country to achieve its potential Gross Domestic Product.
From the aspect of economists, full employment is also considered to have been reached when unemployment rate falls to between 4 and 6 percent.
