Cypriot American - Employment and Economy

Employment and Economy

Fifty-nine percent of Cypriot immigrants in 1984 had professional occupations. Cypriot Americans are highly educated. Many Greek Cypriot Americans are teachers, physicians and academics. Turkish Cypriot Americans are often employed as physicians, scientists and engineers. While immigrants in the first half of the twentieth century were often unskilled laborers who found employment in large industrial cities, subsequent immigrants were highly skilled professionals employed in virtually every field.

Education was a common way of rising in social status and most Cypriots respected higher education and white collar professions. The expanding economy in the second half of the twentieth century allowed many Cypriots to obtain more sophisticated work than their parents. Within one generation, a family could move from an agricultural background to urban professions in teaching, government or small business. The traditional economy of subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry was replaced by a commercial economy, centered in expanding urban areas. The flight from agriculture reached a peak in 1974, when the best and most productive agricultural land fell into Turkish hands. In 1960, some 40.3 percent of the economically active population were agricultural workers; in 1973, the figure was down to 33.6 percent. In 1988, government figures estimated only 13.9 percent of the work force earned a living from farming full-time.