In twelve years about two thirds of it disappeared. Unemployment is measured by the Labour Force Survey, as a percentage of those who are working or looking for work.
The fall is not the same everywhere. In Western Macedonia unemployment was the highest of the 13 regions in four of the five years 2021–2025. In 2025 it was 15.3%, against 8.9% for the country.
The same region lost 10.3% of its residents between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, the largest decline of the 13 regions, and it is going through the transition away from lignite. According to PPC (ΔΕΗ), Ptolemaida V stops burning lignite at the end of 2026.
Regional rates come from a sample and have a larger error than the national one.
An unemployed person, under the survey's definition, is someone who did not work even one hour in the survey week, is actively looking for work and can start within two weeks. That is why the rate does not show how many people are working: those who stopped looking are not counted as unemployed.
2013 was the year with the highest unemployment of the crisis. In 2025 Western Macedonia had about 1.7 times the national rate.
Sources: Eurostat, ELSTAT (ΕΛΣΤΑΤ, Hellenic Statistical Authority), PPC (ΔΕΗ, Public Power Corporation).
