The unemployment rate hit a new 12-year low in January, according to its data. Hellenic Statistical Office (ELSTAT), registering a significant decrease to 10.8%. The deviation is considered especially significant both in relation to a year ago, when the percentage unemployment was 13.7% compared to December 2022, when the ELSTAT estimate was 12.4%. Thus, the number of unemployed people was limited to 501,948 people, which is 134,764 people less compared to January 2022 (-21.2%) and 87,686 people compared to December 2022 (-14.9%). Smaller but significant was the increase in the number of employed, which reached 4,145,529 people, which means an increase of 118,588 people compared to January 2022 (+2.9%), a decrease of 26,314 people compared to December 2022 (- 0.6%). . And this is because, as the figures show, a significant proportion of the unemployed has moved to “persons outside the labor force.” Thus, the number of persons under the age of 75 who are not included in the labor force, i.e. of persons who are not working and not looking for work reached 3,165,855 people, which is 16,493 people less compared to January 2022 (-0.5%) and an increase of 110,145 people. people compared to December 2022 (+3.6%).

At the same time, the data show that unemployment is in single digits (8.3%) for men, unchanged from the previous month, but clearly remaining at a higher level, at 13.9%, for women, albeit significantly down from 15.6% in December. Also for the first time, a single-digit unemployment rate (9.8%) among people aged 25-74 was recorded, compared with 10.7% a month earlier. Of course, at the same time, unemployment among youth aged 15-24 reached 28.1%, that is, three times higher, despite the fact that it has decreased compared to 28.7% recorded in December 2022.

The percentage was 10.8%, while a year ago it was at the level of 13.7%.

It should be noted that the ELSTAT data contradicts the Ergani system data on the balance of hiring and firing for January, which showed that 27,611 jobs were lost in the first month of the new year. Layoffs rose 50,137 in January this year to 213,924 from 163,787 last year, the second-worst in a decade, they said. The first was recorded in 2017 with 28,995 positions lost, and the third worst was last year (-25,804 positions). As for the qualitative data of the Ergani information system, they showed that new employment contracts related to flexible forms of employment by about 48%, and layoffs prevailed for both men (-13,905 positions) and women (-13,706 positions) , while large losses will be registered at the age of 30-44 years (-10 440) and 45-64 years (-6 453).