Macro roundup: Unemployment trends down

Greece's jobless rate drops to 10.9%; demand for bank credit falls; manufacturing improves

Greece’s unemployment rate is getting close to returning to single digits for the first time since 2009 after another decrease in March.

The seasonally-adjusted jobless rate dropped to 10.9 percent from a revised 11.3 percent in February, according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority. Although the rate was even closer to single digits in January, at 10.2 percent, unemployment remains on the steady downward trend that it has been on for the past decade. The youth unemployment rate in March was 24.2 percent.

As it’s a lagging indicator, the unemployment rate is one that we often don’t look at closely. But it’s worth periodically remembering that in July 2013, at the height of Greece’s depression, the rate peaked at an astonishing 28.1 percent — with the youth unemployment rate around double that. It’s been a long road back from that point.