DYPA: 715,328 registered unemployed in July

The total number of people registered on the unemployment register of the Public Employment Service reached 715,328 in July 2026, according to statistics published by DYPA itself on 20 August 2026. This figure comes with two changes moving in opposite directions. Compared with July 2025, a decrease of 80,260 people, or 10.1%, is recorded. Compared with the immediately preceding month, June 2026, however, an increase of 43,035 people, or 6.4%, is recorded. The annual comparison shows the trend, while the monthly one is affected by seasonality: the monthly change is affected by the seasonality of the labour market, as fixed-term contracts end during the summer while the tourist season is under way at the same time. For this reason, comparison with the same month of the previous year is considered the safer trend indicator.

The register also shows how prolonged unemployment tends to be. Of all those registered, 371,019 people, or 51.9%, have been on the register for twelve months or more, while 344,309 people, or 48.1%, for less than twelve months. In other words, more than half of those registered have been seeking work for at least a year. The gender dimension is also pronounced: women make up 69.2% of those registered, or 495,322 people, a proportion that remains consistently high in the service’s data.

A separate figure is unemployment benefit recipients, meaning those who receive a benefit and not simply those who are registered. In July this stood at 148,138 people. Of these, 141,578, or 95.6%, were ordinary unemployed and 6,560, or 4.4%, were seasonal workers in tourism occupations. In the composition of benefit recipients, men numbered 48,271, or 32.6%, and women 99,867, or 67.4%. The gap between the 715,328 registered and the 148,138 receiving benefits shows that the large majority of those on the register are not currently receiving unemployment benefit.

DYPA’s figures do not match those of ELSTAT. The statistical authority’s labour force survey for June 2026 estimates the unemployed at 381,769 people, less than half the figure on the register. The difference is not a contradiction but a matter of definition and method: DYPA records administratively those who have registered on the register, regardless of whether they are actively seeking work, while ELSTAT conducts a sample survey and considers someone unemployed only if they did not work, were actively seeking work and were available to take it up. August’s figures, expected next month, will show whether the monthly increase was indeed seasonal. In the same context are the monthly payments from e-EFKA and DYPA, as well as the employment programmes for unemployed people over 55 run by the service.