ATHENS – The Greek unemployment rate eased to 16.3 pct of the workforce in December 2019 from 16.5 pct in November and 18.5 pct in December 2018, Hellenic Statistical Authority said in a report on Thursday. The statistics service, in a monthly report, said the number of unemployed people totaled 758,886 in December, down 114,584 compared with the same month in 2018 (-13.1 pct) and down by 6,340 (-1.6 pct) compared with November 2019. The number of employed people totaled 3,898,007, up 1.4 pct from December 2018 and down 0.2 pct from November 2019.

The unemployment rate among women was 20.2 pct in December (23.5 pct in December 2018), significantly higher compared with the unemployment rate among men (13.2 pct from 14.6 pct). The 15-24 age group recorded the highest unemployment rate (34.7 pct in December from 39.4 pct in December 2018), followed by the 25-34 age group (22.2 pct from 24.4 pct), the 35-44 age group (15 pct from 16.3 pct), the 45-54 age group (12.9 pct from 15.1 pct), the 55-64 age group (12.3 pct from 14.4 pct) and the 65-74 age group (8.7 pct from 9.8 pct).

Among the country’s regions, the highest unemployment rate was recorded in Epirus-Western Macedonia (19.8 pct in December from 21.2 pct in December 2018), followed by Macedonia-Thrace (18.4 pct from 18.9 pct), Thessaly-Central Greece (17.3 pct from 19 pct), Peloponnese-Western Greece-Ionian Islands (16.1 pct from 18.6 pct), Attica (16.1 pct from 18.8 pct), Aegean (13.7 pct from 20.6 pct) and Crete (11.3 pct from 9.7 pct).