To a low of more than 15 years, since May 2009, unemployment fell in September, according to the latest data from ELSTAT, while at the same time youth unemployment was limited to the lowest level since at least 2007.

Specifically, according to data from ELSTAT. the unemployment rate stood at 9.3% in the first month of autumn, i.e. 8.5 points lower compared to July 2019, confirming that it has now stabilized at a single-digit level and that the labor market is able to absorb the gradual increase of the minimum and average wages, which is recorded after the end of the pandemic.

Read ELSTAT data on unemployment in detail HERE

The number of employed people rose slightly to over 4.26 million, while the number of unemployed fell to the lowest level since 2008, below 438,000.
It is recalled that during the economic crisis the number of people who were looking for work but could not find even exceeded 1.3 million.

Of particular interest are the data on youth unemployment, which was measured at 16.3%. Although ELSTAT does not publish a detailed time series for unemployment in the 15-24 age group, available data suggests that this is the best performance officially recorded to date.

A significant decline is also observed in women’s unemployment, which is traditionally higher than men’s in Greece.

With increasing female participation a firm goal of the government, the individual unemployment rate for women eased to 11.4% in September, compared to 21.6% in the corresponding month of 2019. The difference from male unemployment it has almost halved, from 7.5 points five years ago to less than 4 points now.