Compared with the previous month, the number of unemployed declined by 0.9 percent to 896.6 thousand while the number of employed persons increased by 0.7 percent to 3.86 million.
A year ago, the jobless rate was recorded at 20.8 percent. The number of unemployed persons fell by 9.6 percent while employment rose by 2.3 percent.
Unemployment declined for most of the age groups but continues to hit more young people aged 15-24 years (36.8 percent from 40.4 percent in August 2017) and the 25-34 age group (24.2 percent from 26.6 percent). Lower rates were also observed in the 35-44 age group (17.1 percent from 18.9 percent); the 45-54 age group (15.8 percent from 16.5 percent); the 55-64 age group (14.8 percent from 17.2 percent) and the 65-74 age group (10.1 percent from 13.0 percent).
By genders, the unemployment rate was lower for men (15.0 percent from 17.4 percent) than for women (23.7 percent from 25.1 percent).
Across the country's regions, the lowest jobless rates were registered in Crete (12.8 percent), Aegean Islands (17.4 percent) and Thessaly – Sterea Ellas (18.6 percent). In contrast, Epirus-Western Macedonia recorded the highest rate (23.5 percent).