Greek February unemployment inches up to 20.8 pct, eurozone’s highest

Greece’s jobless rate inched up to 20.8 percent in February from an upwardly revised 20.7 percent in the previous month, data from the country’s statistics service ELSTAT showed on Thursday.

Seasonally adjusted data showed the number of unemployed at 978,072 people, with younger persons aged up to 24 bearing the brunt of being out of work.

Among younger persons aged 15 to 24, the jobless rate eased to 45.4 percent from 46.4 percent in the same month in 2017.

Greece’s jobless rate, which hit a record high of 27.9 percent in September 2013, has been coming down since but remains the highest in the euro zone.

The government expects the unemployment rate to fall to 18.4 percent this year, based on projections in its 2018 budget.

Unemployment in the 19 countries sharing the euro was stable at 8.5 percent in March according to Eurostat. [Reuters]