ATHENS – The Greek unemployment rate fell to 16.4 pct of the workforce in January this year, from 18.5 pct in the same month in 2019, but was unchanged from 16.4 pct in December, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday. The statistics service, in a monthly report, said that the number of unemployed people totaled 767,320 in January, down 12.6 pct from January 2019, and down 0.1 pct from December 2019. The number of employed people totaled 3,911,640, up 1.2 pct from January 2019.

The unemployment rate among women was 20.1 pct in January (from 23.3 pct in January 2019), while among men it fell to 13.5 pct from 14.6 pct, respectively. The 15-24 age group recorded the highest unemployment rate (32.4 pct in January from 39.2 pct in January 2019), followed by the 25-34 age group (22.2 pct from 24.1 pct), the 35-44 age group (14.9 pct from 16.4 pct), the 55-64 age group (13.4 pct from 13.8 pct), the 45-54 age group (13.1 pct from 15 pct) and the 65-74 age group (9.5 pct from 11.7 pct).

Among the country’s regions, Epirus-Western Macedonia recorded the highest unemployment rate (19.8 pct from 21.3 pct), followed by Macedonia-Thrace (18.7 pct from 19.1 pct), Thessaly-Central Greece (18.6 pct from 18.5 pct), Peloponnese-Western Greece-Ionian Islands (15.6 pct from 18.8 pct), Attica (15 pct from 18.7 pct), Crete (13 pct from 11 pct) and Aegean (12.9 pct from 20.4 pct).