A total of 20,254 people joined the dole queues in June in Greece, bringing the total number out of work to 1,403,698. For the third month running, unemployment rose to a new record high of 27.9% in June, leaving almost three in five of young people without a job, the Hellenic Statistics Authority (Elstat) said on Thursday.
The jobless rate rose from 27.6% in May and 24.6% in June last year. Young people were by far the worst affected, with unemployment among job-seekers aged 15 to 24 standing at 58.8%.
The figures showed the total number of people employed in June at 3,628,421, the unemployed at 1,403,698 and economically inactive at 3,334,690.
This means that the country’s unemployment figures have grown by more than a million in five years. In April 2008, a few months before the crisis broke, 380,775 people were recorded as unemployed.
The ranks of the unemployed grew by 20,254, up 1.5%. The number of economically inactive also increased by 14,844, or 0.4%, on May.
Youth unemployment fell from 64.9%, a new record, in May to 58.8%.
The monthly statistical data are adjusted to remove seasonal factors, such as the spike in employment during the summer tourist season that would otherwise obscure underlying
trends.
June’s figures are the highest since Elstat began publishing jobless data in 2006.
The data showed that the unemployment rate for women (31.9%) is higher than that for men (24.9%).
Epirus-Western Macedonia (29.7%), Macedonia-Thrace (29.5%) and Attica (27.7%) are the regions with the highest unemployment rates.
The Aegean islands recorded the lowest figure (21.6%).
Source: enetenglish