20th December 2006, 12:49
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Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Thessaloniki, Greece
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Rep Power: 3  |  Unemployment down to 8.3 percent, NSS reports
Quote: Unemployment down to 8.3 percent, NSS reports
Unemployment fell to 8.3 percent in the third quarter of 2006, down from 9.7 percent in the same quarter of 2005, Greece's National Statistics Service announced on Tuesday. In the same period, the country's working population accounted for 53.5 percent of the total population above 15, which was the highest rate for several years.
Rates of joblessness among young people aged 15-29 remained high at 17.6 percent, rising to 25 percent for young women. Rates of joblessness also tended to be higher than the national average in northern and western parts of Greece, below average in Crete and the southern Aegean and at 8 percent in Attica, down from 8.9 percent in the third trimester of 2005.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday night, during the second day of debate on the goverment's budget for 2007, Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis stressed that "it has been many years since we have seen this figure," the minister told parliament on .
Alogoskoufis, architect of the budget, noted that unemployment had fallen three percentage points to 8.3% from 11.3% in March 2004 when the main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) lost national elections.
"No-one can be satisfied with this level of joblessness, as people are behind the figures. Government policy aims to provide more Greeks with jobs every day, aided by tax reform, the investment law, a law on joint private and public sector ventures, and privatisation," he said.
"Unfortunately PASOK has said no to each of these initiatives," he added.
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