Greek unemployment rate rose to 27.8% of the workforce in the first quarter of 2014, from 27.6% in the same period last year and unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2013, with the number of unemployed people totalling 1,342,299, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Thursday.

According to a report released by the statistics service, 71.4% of unemployed people (958,401) were long-term unemployed. The statistics service noted that the first quarter unemployment figures were based on the 2011 census and were not fully comparable with previous quarters.

The number of unemployed people was up 0.4% compared with the previous quarter and by 0.5% compared with the same period in 2013. The number of employed people totalled 3,483,716, up 0.1% compared with the previous quarter and down 0.6% compared with the first quarter in 2013.

The unemployment rate among women was 31.4% (31.1% in 2013), while among men the unemployment rate was 25% (24.9% in 2013). The 15-24 age group recorded the highest unemployment rate (56.7% from 60% last year), followed by the 25-29 age group (42.4% from 41.1%), the 30-34 age group (26.7% from 26.1%), the 45-64 age group (20.3% from 19.6%) and the above 65 age group (12.6% from 7.4%).

South Aegean (30% this year from 24.9% in 2013) recorded the highest unemployment rate among the country’s regions, followed by Central Macedonia (29%), Western Greece (29.7%), Epirus (28.5%), Western Macedonia (28.4%), Attica (28%), Ionian Islands (27.4%), Central Greece (27.6%), Crete (26.9%), Eastern Macedonia-Thrace (25.4%), Thessaly (25.2%), North Aegean (24.4%) and the Peloponese (23.4%).
Part-time labor accounted for 9.2% of total employment, while 63.3% of workers were wage earners.