The downward trend continued in March unemployment in our country, where the Greek Statistical Office registered a rate of 10.9%, approaching the figures that appeared in almost 14 years, when in November 2009 the unemployment rate, of course, following the opposite upward trend, reached 10.6%. Of course, our country still has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. European Union.

OUR tourism -the country’s heavy industry- and mainly the start of the tourist season, peaking around Easter, and the fact that Greece is now showing tourist activity all 12 months of the year, have led to the continuation of the unemployment rate in March last year, which began several months ago, and will continue to decline to 10.9% compared to 11.3% registered in February. The percentage also showed a significant decline of 1.8 percentage points year-on-year, as unemployment stood at 12.7% in March 2022.

In particular, according to ELSTAT, in March this year, the number of employed was 4,166,819 people, which is 2,694 people less than in March 2022 (-0.1%), and 59,417 people more than in February 2023 year (+1.4%). It also shows the catalytic effect of employment in the tourism and catering sectors, along with economic activities in other sectors, which has led to the creation of almost 60,000 jobs in just one month.

Accordingly, the number of unemployed decreased to 508,744 people, which is 100,395 people less compared to March 2022 (-16.5%) and 14,096 people compared to February 2023 (-2.7%). For persons under 75 years of age who are not included in the labor force, that is, those who are not working and not looking for work, their number reached 3,133,019 people, an increase of 73,815 people compared to March 2022 ( +2.4%) and a decrease of 47,692 people compared to February 2023 (-1.5%).

Of course, the problem remains more acute among women and young people. Thus, for one more month, ELSTAT data show that the unemployment rate among men is consistently single-digit (7.8%), while among women it is almost twice as high, i.e. at the level of 14.5%. Accordingly, the unemployment rate among 15-24 year olds continues to be a headache, rising to 24.2% in March, more than double the 10.2% estimated for 25-74 year olds.

The trend of unemployment in the European Union is also steadily declining, as according to yesterday’s data from Eurostat, the percentage remained at 6% in March 2023 compared to a month earlier and decreased compared to March 2022, which means unemployment in the EU was 6.2% . In particular, in the Eurozone, unemployment fell to 6.5% in March from 6.6% in February 2023 and 6.8% in March 2022. Eurostat estimates that 12.96 million people in the EU, of which 11.010 million in the euro area, were unemployed in March 2023. Spain has the highest unemployment rate (12.8%), followed by our country. In terms of youth unemployment (under 25) in March 2023, the unemployment rate was 14.3% in both the EU and Europe. as well as in the Eurozone with 14.5% and 14.4% respectively in the previous month.

In Greece, youth unemployment fell to 24.2% from 28.5% in February. The highest youth unemployment rates in the EU are registered in Spain (29.5%), Greece (24.2%) and Italy (22.3%).