ATHENS — The Greek unemployment rate eased to 16.8 pct in August from 16.9 pct in the same month last year and 17.0 pct in July 2020, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday. The statistics service, in a monthly report, said that the number of unemployed people totaled 771,325 in August, down 3.6 pct from August 2019 and down 1.8 pct from July 2020. However, the unemployment rate rose significantly in the 15-34 age group.

The number of employed people totaled 3,821,239 in August, down 2.5 pct from August 2019 and off 0.5 pct from July. The unemployment rate among women was 20.2 pct from 21 pct in 2019, while among men it rose to 14.1 pct from 13.7 pct, respectively. The 15-24 age group recorded the highest unemployment rate (39.3 pct in August from 34.5 pct in August 2019), followed by the 25-34 age group (24.4 pct from 22.4 pct), the 35-44 age group (13.9 pct from 14.8 pct), the 45-54 group (13.2 pct from 14 pct), the 55-64 age group (12 pct from 12.7 pct) and the 65-74 age group (6.5 pct from 9.4 pct). Among the country's regions, Crete (20.1 pct from 11.9 pct in 2019) was at the top followed by Peloponnese-Western Greece-Ionian Islands (19.2 pct from 17 pct), Epirus-Western Macedonia (19.1 pct from 19.9 pct), Macedonia-Thrace (18.7 pct from 18.5 pct), Thessaly-Central Greece (18.2 pct from 21.2 pct), Aegean (15 pct from 14.5 pct) and Attica (13.8 pct from 16.2 pct).