The unemployment rate in the country in the second quarter of this year was 11.2%, marking a decrease of 9.9% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, while compared to the previous quarter it showed a decrease of 3.1%. The unemployment rate in the previous quarter (first quarter of 2023) was 11.8% and in the corresponding quarter of the previous year (second quarter of 2022) it was 12.4%.

The number of unemployed amounted to 533,341 people, showing a decrease of 3.1% compared to the previous quarter and a decrease of 9.9% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

However, about 320,000 people, or 59.9% of all unemployed people, are long-term unemployed, as they have been looking for work for a year or more without success.

From the ELSTAT labor force survey, the following also emerges:

The unemployment rate for women is 14.6%, compared to 8.4% for men.

In terms of age, the highest unemployment rates are recorded in the 15-19-year-old (30.5%) and 20-24-year-old (26.2%) groups. They are followed by the ages 25-29 years (18.9%), 30-44 years (11.5%), 45-64 years (7.6%) and 65 years and over (6.8%).

At the level of regions of the country, the first three places are the Ionian Islands (17%), Western Macedonia (14.5%) and Epirus (13.4%). They are followed by Eastern Macedonia-Thrace (13.2%), Central Macedonia (13.1%), Thessaly (11.4%), Peloponnese (11.3%), Western Greece (10.7% ), Attica (10.4%), Central Greece (10.1%), North Aegean (9.8%), Crete (9.8%) and South Aegean (4.2%).

The main reasons the unemployed stopped working are either because their work was of limited duration and ended (30.4%) or because they were fired (16.6%). The percentage of the unemployed who have not worked in the past (young unemployed) is 22.9%. The majority of the unemployed (59.9%) 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 (60.6%). The percentage of unemployed who declare that they are not registered with DYPA amounts to 23.7%, while the percentage of those who declare that they receive an allowance or assistance from DYPA amounts to 11%.

The number of employees reached 4,236,526 people, showing an increase of 3.4% compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 1.7% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The largest percentage of employed people work as employees (69.7%), while the percentage of self-employed people without staff is also important (19.9%). The percentage of part-time employment is 7.4%, while the percentage of people with temporary work is 7.8%. Part-time employment shows a decrease of 9.6% compared to the previous quarter and 11.1% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Temporary employment is up 23.7% over the previous quarter and 0.4% over the same quarter last year.

The professions that gather the largest percentage of employees are those employed in the provision of services and sales (22.3%) and professionals (21.9%). Compared to the previous quarter, the largest increase is observed among unskilled workers, manual workers and small professionals (10.4%), while the largest decrease is observed among skilled farmers, breeders, foresters and fishermen (3.8%). In relation to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the largest increase is observed in senior managerial and administrative staff (8.7%), while the largest decrease is observed in office workers (4.6%).

The largest percentage of employed people (49.9%) state that they worked 40-47 hours in the reference week, while a significant percentage (19.3%) state that they worked 48 or more hours. The majority of employed people (76.6%) state that they worked normal hours during the reference week. 6.3% of those employed say they would like to work more hours, 3% are part-time underemployed who would like to work more and could start working more within the next two weeks, and 1.4% has 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 4,268,513 people. In particular, people outside the labor force under the age of 75 amounted to 3,039,950 people. Their percentage decreased by 4.1% compared to the previous quarter and by 1.4% 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 (47.3%) or it has been more than 8 years since they stopped their last job (30.7%). Of those who worked within the past 8 years, the largest percentage stopped working because they retired (62.5%), or because their work was of limited duration and ended (12.5%).

93.8% of people out of the labor force say they do not want to work, 0.4% say they are looking for work but not immediately available to take it, and 3.2% say they are available to take work directly but not looking for.