No improvement to jobless rate in Oct

Greece’s jobless rate stood at 18.6 percent in October, unchanged from the previous month, data from the country’s statistics service ELSTAT showed yesterday. October’s unemployment is the lowest reading since July 2011. Seasonally adjusted data showed the number of unemployed at 875,997 people, with younger persons aged up to 24 bearing the brunt of being out of work. Among younger persons aged 15 to 24, the jobless rate fell to 38.5 percent from 41.3 percent in the same month in 2017. Greece’s jobless rate, which hit a record high of 27.8 percent in September 2013, has been coming down since but remains the highest in the eurozone. The government expects unemployment to decline to 18.2 percent this year as the economy recovers, based on projections in its 2019 budget. Greece’s economy expanded for a ninth straight quarter in July-to-September and at a slower pace than the quarter before. Unemployment in the 19 countries sharing the euro was revised down to 8 percent in October from a previous 8.1 percent, according to Eurostat.