ATHENS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- A decrease in the Greek unemployment rate to 19.1 percent is recorded in June by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), compared with 21.3 percent during the same period last year, it was announced on Thursday.
Data from the country's statistics service showed the number of the unemployed among young people aged up to 24 years old fell below 40 percent, also for the first time in years.
More specifically, the total number of unemployed people amounted to 909,258, according to ELSTAT's press release, while the economically inactive population (people who are neither working nor looking for work) amounted to 3.2 million.
The number of employed people increased by 83,866 compared to June 2017 (2.2 percent increase) and by 17,656 compared to May 2018 (0.5 percent increase).
The highest unemployment rate is recorded in the 15-24 age group (39.1 percent in June from 43.4 percent in June 2017).
Women still bear the brunt of unemployment, with the jobless rate among them (23.8 percent in June this year from 25.5 percent in June 2017) remaining significantly higher than that for men (15.3 percent from 17.9 percent).
"The Hellenic Statistical Authority announced the further reduction of unemployment to 19.1 percent for June, a level last reached by Greece in September 2011. We are aware that it remains high. We are fully aware of the difficulties of the labor sector ," Effie Achtsioglou, Minister of Labor, Social Solidarity and Social Security, said in a statement to Greek national news agency AMNA.
"But the fact that more than 300,000 unemployed have found jobs in the last three years, allows us to be optimistic," Achtsioglou added, stressing that Greece will continue the effort with the same persistence, but also many more tools, after leaving the fiscal adjustment programs this August.
Greece's jobless rate, which hit a record high of 27.9 percent in September 2013, has been declining since, but remains the highest in the euro zone.
According to Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, the unemployment rate in July across the 19-member euro zone was 8.2 percent.
