Greek unemployment rate fell to 16.9 pct of the workforce in the second quarter of 2019, from 19.2 pct in the first quarter and 19 pct in the same period last year, the Greek Statistics Authority ELSTAT said on Thursday.
According to the released report, the number of unemployed people totaled 805,047 in the second quarter, down 11.2 pct from the previous quarter and down 11.1 pct compared with the same period last year.
However, a total of 570,000 unemployed (70.8 pct of total) were long-term unemployed and 20.8 pct of unemployed were not registered unemployed.
The percentage of unemployed receiving unemployment benefit was 11.0 pct.
The number of employed people was 3,956,424 and employment rose 3.7 pct from the previous quarter and 2.5 pct compared with the same period in 2018.
Part-time employment accounted for 9.1 pct of total employment.
The unemployment rate among women was 20.9 pct from 13.7 pct among men.
The 15-19 age group recorded the highest unemployment rate (41.5 pct), followed by the 20-24 group (32.7 pct), the 25-29 group (24.6 pct), the 30-44 age group (16.6 pct), the 45-64 age group (13.8 pct) and the above 65 age group (10 pct).
Among the country’s regions, West Macedonia (24.6 pct) recorded the highest unemployment rate, followed by Western Greece (23.9 pct), Central Macedonia (19.6 pct), Thessaly (17.9 pct), Attica (17.2 pct), the Northern Aegean (17.1 pct), Epirus (16 pct), Eastern Macedonia-Thrace (15.9 pct), Central Greece (15.6 pct), the Peloponnese (12.2 pct), the Ionian Islands (11.9 pct), Crete (9.4 pct) and the South Aegean (8.1 pct).
