Greek jobless rate drops to 15.8% in second quarter

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's jobless rate fell to 15.8% in the second quarter from 17.1% in the first three months of 2021, data by the country's statistics service ELSTAT showed on Thursday.

About 61% of Greece's 732,544 jobless are long-term unemployed, meaning they have been out of work for at least 12 months, the figures showed.

Greece's highest unemployment rate was recorded in the first quarter of 2014, when joblessness hit 27.8%.

The data showed that women and young people in the 15-19 age group were most affected among the jobless. The jobless rate for women was 19.9% versus 12.4% for men, while for people aged 15-19 it stood at 51.8%.

Athens has already published monthly unemployment figures through July, which differ from quarterly data because they are based on different samples and are seasonally adjusted.

Quarterly figures are not seasonally adjusted.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos and Angeliki Koutantou)