by Tim Drayton » Tue Feb 14, 2017 11:51 am
I hate to cast myself in the role of Cassandra, but I think you need to be aware of certain realities here. Cyprus underwent a severe banking crisis in 2013 that would have bankrupted the whole country were it not for a massive bailout that is going to weigh down on the economy for decades. Unemployment rocketed as a result of the crisis and, while there are signs of improvement, it remains vey high. With tourism being a major part of the Cyprus economy, there is pronounced seasonality in employment patterns. There is a lot of demand for pitifully low paid staff in hotels and restaurants in the summer season. It is tougher to find year-round work. Not only UK citizens, but people from Bulgaria and Romania have the right of free movement in the EU, and those two countries are unfortunately home to a lot of desperate people who come to places like Cyprus in search of work, and they will work for very low wages. Wages in most lines of work are considerably lower than in the UK. It is true that housing here is cheaper, but apart from that the cost of living is about the same. One important factor to consider is the language barrier. There seems to be an idea in some places that Cyprus is an English-speaking country, but it is not. It is certainly true that English is widely spoken here, and professional people like lawyers and accountants tend to have an excellent command of English. This does not apply to the whole population, though, and if you are looking for unskilled or semi-skilled work in the south of Cyprus and can't speak reasonable Greek, you are going to be seriously handicapped. Obviously you will be unable to work in any capacity that involves dealing directly with consumers, such as serving at the counter in a bakery (and our local bakery has a sign in its window advertising for staff) and even in other capacities, you will probably find that supervisors and fellow workers who you need to communicate with will expect to do so in Greek, in fact they will have to do so if they speak no other language. If a job can be done by a foreigner with no knowledge of the local language - well, don't forget that there are plenty of Bulgarians and Romanians looking for that kind of work.