More bad news for Greece today as official figures showed that unemployment in the recession battered country hit a new record high of 27.6% in May.
According to statistics service ELSTAT the jobless rate increased from the upwardly revised 27% recorded in April, which makes the Greek jobless rate more than twice the average rate in the Eurozone which stands around 12.1%.
The number of unemployed people increased by 193,668 (a 16.3 percent rate of increase) compared with May 2012 and by 30,558 compared with April 2013. More than 1.4 million people are now out of work and 3.3 million are classed as economically inactive. The latest reading is the highest since ELSTAT began publishing monthly jobless data in 2006.
Greece has been hammered by austerity and repeated international bailouts which has seen the nation mired in a six-year long depression. Criminally youth unemployment has soared to a staggering 64.9%, up from the 57.5% recorded in April.
With unemployment continuing to rise in the country, the desperate Greek government has sought ways to try and ease the job crisis. Athens is hoping to tap into €170 million worth of EU regional development funds as it tries to launch jobs programs and has asked the European Commission to help approve the application.
Here is a breakdown of age group unemployment in May:
15-24 – 64.9%
25-34 – 37.7%
35-44 – 24.7%
45-54 – 20.9%
55-64 – 16.2%
65-74 – 9.6%
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
As of 12:25 pm
The Euro/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.3358 >
The Euro/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8613 <
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.4721 <
The Euro/ New Zealand Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6738
