Greece: Unemployment at 12.8% in December

The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) announced the seasonally adjusted estimates of employment and unemployment for December 2021. It should be noted that in December, the labour market was affected by specific regulatory measures concerning the operation of businesses, as well as by measures taken to protect public health and tackle the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the whole Country. These measures affected, not only the normal functioning of the market, but also the data collection method of the survey.

It should be noted that due to the exceptional circumstances under which the collection of a part of the primary data used for the compilation of the present survey took place and the resulting impact on the response rate, as well as the extent to which the latter can be attributed to the above mentioned exceptional circumstances, ELSTAT is currently conducting methodological checks of compatibility of alternative data collection practices the results of which may be published as long as this is deemed necessary.

• The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in December 2021 amounted to 12.8% compared to the downwards revised 15.5% in December 2020 and to the upwards revised 13.4% in November 2021.
• The number of employed persons amounted to 4,075,808 persons increasing by 188,872 persons as compared with December 2020 (+4.9%) and decreased by 11,908 persons compared with November 2021 (-0.3%).
• The number of unemployed persons amounted to 596,067 decreasing by 118,891 persons as compared with December 2020 (-16.6%) and by 35,781 persons compared with November 2021 (-5.7%).
• The number of persons outside the labour force, i.e., persons that neither work nor look for a job, amounted to 3,176,044, decreasing by 101,335 persons as compared with December 2020 (-3.1%) and increased by 45,124 persons compared with November 2021 (+1.4%).
Graph 1 shows the evolution of the above figures since January 2009.

The monthly estimates are subject to revisions due to the updates of the seasonally adjusted series whenever new monthly data are added, as well as to the update of seasonal adjustment model with complete annual data. Users should also take into account that the first estimates of the most recent monthly unemployment rates are likely to be revised as they are produced on the basis of the survey data collected and processed at the time of the press release publication, which do not coincide with the finally collected and processed data. For this reason, the monthly estimates are revised when the final quarterly estimates are made available.