The jobless rate continued its upward path in Greece in May, reaching 16.6 per cent of the working population, the official Greek statistical service ELSTAT reported on Thursday, according to dpa. Just a year earlier, unemployment was at 12 per cent in the highly indebted country, rising to 15.9 per cent in April this year. Young people have been particularly badly hit, with 40.1 per cent of those aged 15 to 24 without work, against an average figure for the age group of 32.5 per cent last year. The Bank of Greece, the southern European country's central bank, predicts that the domestic economy will shrink by almost 4 per cent this year, after contracting by 4.5 per cent last year.
