Greek unemployment rate drops to 21.1% during Q2 2017

Greek unemployment rate dropped to 21.1 pct of the workforce in the second quarter of 2017, from 23.3 pct in the first quarter and 23.1 pct in the same period last year, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday.

The statistics service, in a report, announced that the number of unemployed people totaled 1,016,571, one in two young people (55.5 pct) remained unemployed and long-term unemployed people were more than 752,000.

The number of unemployed people decreased 8.8 pct in the second quarter compared with the first quarter of 2017 and by 8.6 pct compared with the same period last year. The unemployment rate among women was 25.4 pct and among men 17.7 pct. The 15-19 age group recorded the biggest unemployment rate (55.5 pct), followed by the 20-24 age group (45 pct), 25-29 age group (30.1 pct), the 30-44 group (20.3 pct), the 45-64 group (17.1 pct) and the over 65 age group (11.8 pct).

Among the country’s regions, Western Macedonia (29.3 pct) recorded the largest unemployment rate, followed by Western Greece (26.2 pct), Epirus (25.4 pct), Central Macedonia (23.2 pct), Northern Aegean (21.9 pct), Attica (21.5 pct), Central Greece (20.7 pct), Thessaly (20.1 pct), Eastern Macedonia-Thrace (19.4 pct), Peloponnese (15.9 pct), Crete (15.6 pct), Ionian Islands (15.5 pct) and Southern Aegean (14.3 pct).

First-time unemployment was 20.1 pct, while registered unemployment was 24.4 pct and those receiving unemployment benefit were 9.8 pct.

The number of employed persons was 3,791,408, up 3.6 pct from the previous quarter and 2.4 pct from the same period in 2016. Wage workers accounted for 66.1 pct of all employed people, while self-employed people totaled 22.7 pct. Part-time employment was 9.9 pct and people in temporary work was 8.3 pct.