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Greece\u2019s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent in August 2026, down from 8.8 percent a year earlier and 7.9 percent in July, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said in its monthly labour-force release on 30 September.<\/p>\n
The figure is the lowest monthly rate since May 2008, before the sovereign-debt crisis drove joblessness into the high twenties, according to a widely shared reading of the data. Official comparisons in the ELSTAT bulletin itself are with August 2025 and July 2026.<\/p>\n
The number of people in work reached 4,410,105, an increase of 85,042, or 2.0 percent, from August 2025, and of 17,322, or 0.4 percent, from July. The unemployed total stood at 350,800, down 67,181 people, or 16.1 percent, on the year and 25,656, or 6.8 percent, on the month.<\/p>\n
People under 75 outside the labour force \u2014 neither working nor looking for work \u2014 numbered 2,943,171. That was 60,682 fewer than a year earlier, a 2.0 percent decline, though 4,130 more than in July.<\/p>\n
The improvement is uneven. Unemployment among men fell to 4.9 percent from 6.9 percent in August 2025. Among women it eased only to 10.3 percent from 11.1 percent, leaving female joblessness more than twice the male rate.<\/p>\n
By age, the 15\u201324 group saw the steepest fall, to 15.6 percent from 21.8 percent a year earlier. For ages 25\u201374 the rate was 6.9 percent, down from 8.0 percent.<\/p>\n
Those splits matter for how the headline is read. A 7.4 percent national rate sits close to levels last seen before the crisis, but youth unemployment remains more than double the adult rate, and the gender gap has narrowed only modestly.<\/p>\n
ELSTAT\u2019s seasonally adjusted path through 2026 has not been a straight line. The published series shows 8.9 percent in January, 9.9 percent in February and a peak of 10.3 percent in March, then 9.0 percent in April, 7.8 percent in May, 8.1 percent in June, 7.9 percent in July and 7.4 percent in August. The August print is the low point of that run.<\/p>\n
August is also a month when tourism and seasonal services are near full swing, which is why the authority publishes seasonally adjusted estimates. The adjustment is meant to strip out the regular summer lift so the month can be compared with winter readings. Even on that basis, both employment and unemployment moved in a favourable direction from July.<\/p>\n
At the worst of the crisis, Greek unemployment exceeded 27 percent. A return toward the high single digits has been one of the clearer labour-market trends of the past decade, helped by the tourism recovery, EU-funded investment and a long expansion in services employment. The August release adds another data point to that trend: more people in work, fewer counted as unemployed, and a smaller pool outside the labour force than a year ago.<\/p>\n
It does not, on its own, describe job quality. ELSTAT\u2019s monthly bulletin does not break out wages, hours, temporary contracts or underemployment. A lower unemployment rate can coincide with part-time or seasonal work, and Greece\u2019s female participation rate has long lagged the male rate, which is one reason the 10.3 percent women\u2019s figure still stands out.<\/p>\n
Nor does the release settle the political argument that followed it online. Supporters of the government treated 7.4 percent as evidence that the post-crisis repair of the labour market is intact. Critics tend to answer with wages, housing costs and the remaining gaps by age and sex \u2014 issues this particular bulletin does not measure.<\/p>\n
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