The unemployment rate in the country was 10.5% in the fourth quarter of last year, from 10.8% in the third quarter and against 11.9% in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The number of unemployed rose to 488,667 people, showing a decrease of 5% compared to the previous quarter and by 12.5% ​​compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Of the total unemployed, 50.8% or about 248,000 people are long-term unemployed (looking for work for a year or more).

At women the unemployment rate reached 12.9% and in men to 8.5%.

In terms of age, the highest percentages are recorded in the 15-19-year-old (44.2%) and 20-24-year-old (26.9%) groups. They are followed by the ages of 25-29 years (18.2%), 30-44 years (10.6%), 45-64 years (6.8%) and 65 years and over (6.8%).

At the level of regions of the country, the first three places are Western Macedonia (19.5%), Central Macedonia (14%) and Thessaly (12.3%). They are followed by the Ionian Islands (12.1%), Epirus (11.3%), the North Aegean (11.2%), Crete (10.5%), Eastern Macedonia-Thrace (9.7% ), Western Greece (9.7%), Attica (9.2%), Central Greece (7.7%), Peloponnese (6.8%) and South Aegean (4.2%).

From the data of the ELSTAT labor force survey, it appears that the main reasons the unemployed stopped working are either because their work was of limited duration and ended (36.2%) or because they were fired (15.9%). The percentage of the unemployed who have not worked in the past (young unemployed) is 23.2%.

The percentage of the unemployed who have been looking for work for a year or more (long-term unemployed) amounts to 50.8%. The majority of the unemployed have completed up to secondary education (60.7%). The percentage of the unemployed who declare that they are not registered with DYPA amounts to 20.2%, while the percentage of those who declare that they receive an allowance or assistance from DYPA amounts to 13.7%.

The number of employed persons amounted to 4,183,128 people, showing a decrease of 1.7% compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 1.2% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The largest percentage of employed people work as employees (68.6%), while the percentage of self-employed people without staff is also significant (20.4%).

The part-time employment rate stands at 7.5%, showing an increase of 13.2% compared to the previous quarter and a decrease of 6.3% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The percentage of people with temporary work amounts to 10.7%, recording a decrease of 11.5% compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 17.6% compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The occupations which gather the largest percentage of the employed are those employed in the provision of services and sellers (22.5%) and professionals (21.6%). Compared to the previous quarter, the largest increase is observed among skilled farmers, breeders, foresters and fishermen (2.6%), while the largest decrease is observed among unskilled workers, manual workers and small professionals (12.5%). In relation to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the largest increase is observed among those employed in the provision of services and sales (8.8%), while the largest decrease is observed among technicians and practitioners of related professions (5.6%).

The largest percentage of employed people (53.3%) state that they worked 40-47 hours in the reference week, while a significant percentage (17.3%) state that they worked 48 or more hours. The majority of employed people (80.9%) state that they worked normal hours during the reference week. 7.2% 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 1.3% have more than one job.

People not in the labor force, or “people outside the labor force” (those not working or looking for work), totaled 4,360,932 people. In particular, people outside the labor force under the age of 75 amounted to 3,126,273 people. Their percentage increased by 3.1% compared to the previous quarter and decreased by 0.2% 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 (44.6%) or it has been more than 8 years since they stopped their last job (28.7%). Of those who worked within the last 8 years, the largest percentage stopped working because they retired (53.4%), or because their work was of limited duration and ended (21.3%).

91.4% of people outside the labor force say they do not want to work. 0.8% say they are looking for work but are not immediately available to take it, while 4.3% say they are available to take work immediately but are not looking.