Greek unemployment unchanged at 11.6% in December

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s jobless rate stood at 11.6% in December, unchanged from an upwardly revised 11.6% in November, data from statistics service ELSTAT showed on Wednesday.

Seasonally adjusted data showed 545,372 people were officially unemployed, with those under the age of 24 the hardest hit.

The reading was the lowest recorded since January 2010 – at the start of Greece’s decade-long economic crisis – following the revision of last month’s figure. Unemployment reached a peak in the summer of 2013 and has been falling steadily since.

Unemployment was worse among women than men, with the rates at 15.6% 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 Toby Chopra)