Greek unemployment drops to 10.8% in January, lowest since 2009

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s jobless rate eased to 10.8% in January, down from an upwardly revised 12.4% in December, data from statistics service ELSTAT showed on Thursday.

Seasonally adjusted data showed 501,948 people were officially unemployed, with those under the age of 24 the hardest hit.

The reading was the lowest since December 2009 – at the start of Greece’s decade-long economic crisis – following the revision of last month’s figure. Unemployment peaked in the summer of 2013 and has been falling steadily since.

Unemployment was wider spread among women than men, with the rates at 13.9% and 8.3%, respectively.

The Greek government expects the jobless rate to ease to 12.6% in 2023 from 12.7% in 2022, with the economy seen growing by 1.8%.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou and Renee Maltezou; Editing by Kim Coghill)