If young Cypriots could choose between different kinds of jobs 64% would prefer to be self-employed, 27% an employee and 9% were undecided, according to an EU survey on Social entrepreneurship and youth.
The survey was carried out last October with a total of 510 young people, aged 15 to 30, surveyed online in Cyprus and 25,992 in the EU27.
Unlike in Cyprus, as many as 55% of young people aged 15-30 in the EU would prefer to be an employee and only 39% self-employed while 7% were undecided.
At the same time, very few young people both in Cyprus and the EU at large consider setting up their own business and only few have taken active steps to do so.
Asked how interested people aged 15-30 years old are in starting their own business, only 18% of Cypriots were very interested, 43% fairly interested, 35% not very interested, 3% not at all interested and 1% don’t know.
Lack of capital or resources, financial risks and insufficient knowledge and entrepreneurship skills were found as the main barriers to young people becoming entrepreneurs.
In addition, only one-third of young people were familiar with the concept of social entrepreneurship.