Unemployment soared among young people, with the unemployment rate rising to 40.4 per cent in February, up 8.5 percentage points from the same month last year according to the latest statistical data.
The unemployment rate jumped to 15.9 per cent in February, from 12.1 per cent in February 2010 and 15.1 per cent in January 2011. The number of unemployed people rose by 181,952 in February from the same month in 2010 (an increase of 30.1 per cent) and by 30,435 or 4.0 per cent compared with January 2011.
The number of employed people totaled 4,178,312 in February, down 225,739 compared with February 2010 and by 89,272 compared with January 2011. The unemployment rate among people aged 15-24 was 40.4 per cent (32 per cent in February 2010), in the 25-34 age group rose to 19.9 per cent from 15.2 per cent in 2010 and in the 35-44 age group rose to 14.4 per cent from 10.4 per cent last year.
Among women, unemployment rose to 19 per cent in February from 15.3 per cent in the same month last year. Southern Aegean (32.7 per cent from 21.3 per cent), western Macedonia (23.9 per cent from 16.6 per cent), Ionian Islands (22.4 per cent from 16.8 per cent), western Greece (17.1 per cent from 10.6 per cent) and central Macedonia (16.3 per cent from 12.6 per cent) recorded the highest rates, while the unemployment rate in Attica jumped to 14.8 per cent in February from 10.9 per cent in February 2010.