Greece’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 23.4 percent of the workforce in August, from 23.3 percent in July, but fell from 24.6 percent in August last year, Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) said on Thursday.
In a report ELSTAT said that the number of unemployed people totaled 1,126,455, with unemployment remaining a big problem among young people and among people aged 55-64. It also stated that unemployment grew by 3.5 points in one year and that specifically unemployment grew by 4.0 points on the Aegean islands, which was attributed to a decline in tourism because of the refugee crisis.
The number of unemployed people fell to 59,894 in August from the same month in 2015 (totaling a 5 percent decline). However, unemployment also grew from July 2016 to August 2016 by 1,669, or 0.1 percent.
Also the number of employed people was 3,687,465, up 57,683 (1.6 percent) from August 2015, but down 7,001 (0.2 percent) compared with July 2016. The number of economically non active people was 3,228,437, down 1.1 percent from August and up 0.1 percent from July 2016.
The unemployment rate among women was 28 percent in August from 28.5 percent in the same month last year, while among men it was 19.7 percent in 2016 from 21.5 percent in 2015.
The unemployment rate among young people, aged 15-24 years, was 46.5 percent from 48.3 percent in August 2015, while in the 25-34 age group it fell to 30.2 percent from 30.9 percent.
Also, in the 35-44 age group unemployment eased to 19.9 percent from 21.9 percent and in the 45-54 age group it fell to 18.8 percent from 20.1 percent. However, in the 55-64 age group it rose to 19.4 percent from 15.9 percent and in the 65-74 age group it rose to 13.1 percent from 11.7 percent.
Epirus-Western Macedonia recorded the highest unemployment rate among the country’s regions with 26.3 percent in August 2016 from 27.7 percent in August 2015.
This was followed by Thessaly-Central Greece which came in at 25 percent in 2016 from 26.7 percent in 2015, while Macedonia-Thrace saw 25 percent from 25.3 percent.
The Peloponese-Western Greece-Ionian Islands came in at 23.3 percent from 24.4 percent, Attica at 23.2 percent in 2016 from 24.7 percent in 2015, Crete at 22.2 percent from 23.5 percent and lastly the Aegean region at 19.5 percent from 15.5 percent.
Source: ANA-MPA
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