New record for Greek unemployment: in March the jobless rate reached 16,2%, compared to 15,9% in the previous month and 11,6% in the same period last year. The data was released today by the National Statistical Office Elstat. The unemployed in Athens remain lower than in Spain (21,3% in the first quarter of 2011), but are more than double the European Union average. As for numbers, in March there were 811,340 people officially out of work. The increase on an annual basis is frightening: even 40,2%. As expected, the first to suffer from a similar situation are young people. The most affected age group is between 15 and 24 years (the figure rises to 42,5%), followed by that between 25 and 34 (22,6% do not work).
Bad news also on the industrial production front, which fell again in April. The drop was 11% compared to the same period in 2010. In March, the contraction was 8%. Industry accounts for around 15% of all Greek output, dominated by the tertiary sector, with the manufacturing sector contributing around 11% to GDP. “Industrial production continues to deteriorate – explains Nikos Magginas, of the National Bank -, since very weak domestic demand cancels out the benefits deriving from the satisfactory trend of exports” .
