The statistics service, in a monthly report, said that approximately 900 people every day, on average, lost their jobs in 2011, while youth unemployment surpassed 50 pct. The unemployment rate rose to 21.7 pct in February, from 15.2 pct in February 2011 and 21.3 pct in January 2012. The number of unemployed people rose by 318,435 compared with February 2011 (42.3 pct up) and by 14.237 from January 2012 (up 1.3 pct). amna

The number of employed people in the country totaled 3,872,243, down 8.0 pct from February 2011 and up 0.2 pct from January 2012. Unemployment in the 15-24 age group rose to 53.8 pct (40.3 pct in February last year), in the 25-34 age group jumped to 29.1 pct from 20.4 pct and in the 35-44 age group rose to 17.6 pct from 12.9 pct over the same periods, respectively. Unemployment in the 45-54 age group rose to 16.2 pct (10.4 pct in February 2011) and in the 55-64 age group was 11.2 pct from 7.5 pct. Unemployment among women rose to 25.7 pct in February, from 18.8 pct last year, while among men the unemployment rate rose to 18.6 pct from 12.5 pct. www.amna.gr

Macedonia-Thrace (23.3 pct) recorded the highest unemployment rate among the country’s regions, followed by Attica (23 pct), Epirus (22.3 pct), Thessaly (21.1 pct), Crete (20.1 pct) and the Peloponnese (19.8 pct).