The unemployment rate in the country rose to 11.9% in the fourth quarter of last year, from 11.6% in the previous quarter and against 13.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The number of unemployed people reached 558,416, showing an increase of 0.5% compared to the previous quarter and a decrease of 9.6% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Of the total number of unemployed, approximately 356,000 people are long-term unemployed, meaning they have been looking for work for a year or more without success.

According to ELSTAT’s quarterly labor force survey, the unemployment rate for women is 15.7% compared to 8.8% for men.

In terms of age, the highest percentages are observed in the 15-19-year-old (39.4%) and 20-24-year-old (28.2%) groups. This is followed by the ages 25-29 (22.9%), 30-44 (11.4%), 45-64 (8.3%) and 65 and over (6.1%).

At the level of the country’s regions, the first three places are Thessaly (16.2%), Western Macedonia (15.2%) and Central Macedonia (14.9%).

They are followed by Peloponnese (14.2%), Eastern Macedonia-Thrace (13.8%), Central Greece (13.5%), Epirus (12.6%), Northern Aegean (11.2% ), Crete (11.1%), Attica (9.6%), Western Greece (9.5%), the Ionian Islands (9.1%) and the South Aegean (7.5%).

The survey data also shows that the main reasons the unemployed stopped working are either because their work was of limited duration and ended (30.9%) or because they were fired (16.1%). The percentage of the unemployed who have not worked in the past (young unemployed) is 25.3%.

The majority of the unemployed (63.7%) have been looking for work for a year or more (long-term unemployed). Also, the majority of the unemployed have completed up to secondary education (63.1%).

The percentage of the unemployed who declare that they are not registered with DYPA (OAED) amounts to 20.2%, while the percentage of those who declare that they receive an allowance or assistance from DYPA (OAED) amounts to 13.3%.

The number of employed persons amounted to 4,135,231 people, showing a decrease of 1.9% compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 2%, compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The largest percentage of employed people work as employees (69.6%), while the percentage of self-employed people without staff is also significant (19.8%).

The percentage of part-time employment is 8.1%, while the percentage of people with temporary work is 6.3%. Part-time employment shows an increase of 10.1% compared to the previous quarter and a decrease of 9.2% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Temporary employment has decreased compared to the previous quarter (24.7%), while it shows an increase compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year (2.1%).

The professions that bring together the largest percentage of employed people are professionals (22.4%) and those employed in the provision of services and sellers (20.9%). Compared to the previous quarter, the largest increase is observed among professionals (2.9%), while the largest decrease is observed among those employed in the provision of services and sales (8.7%).

In relation to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the largest increase is observed in operators of industrial plants, machinery and equipment (9.5%), while a decrease is observed in those employed in the provision of services and sales (6%) and in technicians and practitioners of related occupations (4.4%).

The largest percentage of employed people (49.5%) state that they worked 40-47 hours in the reference week, while a significant percentage (19.2%) state that they worked 48 or more hours. The majority of those employed (78.1%) state that they worked normal hours during the reference week.

7.1% of employed people say they would like to work more hours, 3.1% are part-time underemployed (who would like to work more and could start working more within the next two weeks), and 1.5% have more than one job.

Finally, people not included in the labor force, or “people outside the labor force” (those not working or looking for work), amounted to 4,351,018 people. In particular, people outside the labor force under the age of 75 amounted to 3,130,986 people. Their percentage increased by 2.3% compared to the previous quarter and decreased by 1.7% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The majority of people outside the labor force aged 15-74 have either never worked before (46.4%) or it has been more than 8 years since they stopped their last job (28.6%). Of those who worked within the last 8 years, the largest proportion stopped working because they retired (55.7%), or because their work was of limited duration and ended (21.6%).

92.1% of people outside the labor force say they do not want to work. 1.2% say they are looking for work but are not immediately available to take it, while 4.6% say they are available to take work immediately but are not looking.