Greek unemployment at 25.2% – a slight improvement on last year

ANA-MPA — Greek unemployment rate fell to 25.2 pct of the workforce in June, compared with a 26.6 pct rate in June last year, but rose compared with a 25.0 pct rate in May 2015, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday.

The statistics service, in a report, said that the number of unemployed people totalled 1,204,844 in June, down by 81,474 compared with June 2014, and down by 2,609 compared with May 2015.

The number of employed people totalled 3,584,973, up 1.1 pct from June 2014 but down 1.2 pct from May 2015.

The unemployment rate among women was 29.5 pct in June (30.6 pct in June 2014), while among men it fell to 21.7 pct from 23.5 pct over the same periods, respectively.

The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group fell to 48.3 pct in June from 49.4 pct in June last year, in the 25-34 age group it fell to 32.1 pct from 35.2 pct, in the 35-44 age group it eased to 22.4 pct from 22.8 pct, in the 45-54 age group it fell to 19.7 pct from 20.9 pct, in the 55-64 age group it eased to 17.2 pct from 17.4 pct and in the 65-74 age group it fell to 10 pct from 11.6 pct.

Thessaly/Central Greece (27.1 pct from 25.9 pct), Epirus-Western Macedonia (26.7 pct from 27.2 pct) and Attica (25.3 pct from 27.3 pct) recorded the highest unemployment rates among the country’s regions, followed by Macedonia/Thrace (25.2 pct from 27.5 pct), Crete (24.3 pct from 25.8 pct), Peloponese/Western Greece/Ionian Islands (24.1 pct from 26.4 pct) and Aegean (18.4 pct from 17.8 pct).