ATHENS — The Greek unemployment rate rose to 16.7 pct of the workforce in the second quarter of 2020 from 16.2 pct in the previous quarter but remained slightly below a 16.9 pct rate in the corresponding period last year, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday.

The statistics service said that the number of unemployed people totaled 768,276, of which around 509,000 were long-term unemployed, up 3.1 pct from the previous quarter but down 4.6 pct from the second quarter of 2019. The number of employed people totaled 3,844,034 at the end of June, with the employment rate falling 0.2 pct on quarterly basis and by 2.8 pct on an annual basis. The statistics service said that workers with their contracts in suspension due to the pandemic were considered employed under Eurostat's directives.

The sector mostly hit by the pandemic crisis were services (commerce, hospitality, transport, communications, etc) while the sectors of agriculture, forestry and fishery were hit less. The unemployment rate among women was 19.9 pct, significantly up compared with men (14.1 pct). The 20-24 age group recorded the highest unemployment rate (36.4 pct), followed by the 15-19 age group (32.5 pct), the 25-29 age group (26.5 pct), the 30-44 (16.2 pct), the 45-64 (13.2 pct) and 65+ (8.5 pct). Among the country's regions, the Southern Aegean (26.6 pct) recorded the highest unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2020, followed by Central Greece (19.7 pct), Crete (19.5 pct), the Ionian Islands (19.1 pct), Central Macedonia (18.8 pct), Western Macedonia (17.9 pct), Thessaly (17.9 pct), Epirus (16.6 pct), the North Aegean (15.9 pct), East Macedonia-Thrace (15.8 pct), Attica (13.7 pct) and the Peloponnese (10 pct).