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in the labour market had been forced on Cypriot society by the shock of war, as the
Economist suggested, it is not demonstrated in the very limited official statistics 82 .
Although there have been few studies of social mobility, the growth and
development of the economy and departure of the colonial power (vacating all
middle and high ranking civil service positions) clearly left considérable room for
middle class recruitment in the immediate post-independence area. According to the
first House study (1981) 83 , the immediate post de facto division period also saw
significant occupational mobility.
"Labour mobility in Cyprus over a very dramatic growth period appears to be high,
especially when compared with the results from a similar study in Australia.
Twenty-four percent of the persons in our sample changed occupation and 7%
changed their industry of employment between 1975-79. This resuit is a reflection
of the internai labour market, whereby employees attain upward mobility and pay
advancement within their industry of work. " 84
In the 1980s the percentage of persons changing occupations had slowed by a third
to around a 16% turnover. By this latest survey covering the period 1979-1985 85 ,
nearly half of ali mobility occurred between adjacent occupational catégories with,
unsurprisingly, women and older workers being least mobile. Düring the period of
rapid growth following 1974, female occupational mobility was less than the
corresponding male rates:
the women of Cyprus do relatively better than those in the Republic of Korea and Japan, where the
differential is 0.45 and 0.53 respectively. " House, W.J. 1985. Cvpriot Women in the Labour
Market. Geneva: ILO, p.31.
82 "Any discussion of the advancement of the female half of the population of Cyprus is beset by
additional difficulties because in the inadequate records in general the female half of the population
in particular has suffered from enhanced invisibility." So said former Government minister
Christodoulou (1992. op. cit., p.22). According to Stavros Karayorgios, an Economist in the
Ministry of Finance' s, Dept. of Statistics and Research (interview 03/7/95), the Republic of Cyprus
only began collecting employment data by gender in 1980. Earlier snap-shots, such as 1967 and
1972, are based on estimâtes derived from Census data and démographie reports.
83 House, W.J. 1981. Aspects of Labour Mobility in Cyprus. Geneva: ILO/UNFPA. Conclusions
reported in House 1982. op. cit., p.20.
u ibid., p.20.
85 House, W.J. 1988. Mobility in the Labour Market in Cyprus. Geneva: ILO/UNFPA.
105