The unemployment rate in Greece eased further to 20.7 pct in October, from 20.8 pct in September and 23.3 pct in October 2016, Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday.

The statistics service, in a monthly report, said the number of unemployed people totaled 990,288 in October, down 123,054 compared with October 2016 (a decline of 11.1 pct) and down 4.528 compared with September 2017 (a decline of 0.5 pct). The number of employed people was 3,783,483 in October, up 3 pct from October 2016 and unchanged from September 2017. The unemployment rate among women was 25.4 pct in October from 27.9 pct in October 2016, while among men it fell to 17 pct from 19.5 pct over the same period, respectively.

The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group fell to 40.8 pct in October from 44.4 pct in October 2016, in the 25-34 age group it fell to 25.7 pct from 29.7 pct, in the 35-44 age group it fell to 18.9 pct from 19.7 pct, in the 45-54 age group it fell to 16.4 pct from 18.8 pct, in the 55-64 age group it fell to 16.7 pct from 19.5 pct and in the 65-74 age group it fell to 12.5 pct from 17.6 pct.

Among the country’s regions, Epirus-Western Macedonia recorded the highest unemployment rate (25.8 pct in October from 27.5 pct in October 2016), followed Peloponnese-Western Greece-Ionian Islands (21.9 pct from 23.7 pct), Macedonia-Thrace (21.4 pct from 24 pct), Attica (21.2 pct from 22.8 pct), Thessaly-Central Greece (19.5 pct from 24.1 pct), Aegean (17.5 pct from 18.9 pct) and Crete (14.8 pct from 20.1 pct).