Greek unemployment fell by 0.6 per cent in August as the tourism industry propped up the country's labor market.

The national statistics service has announced that Greece's jobless rate declined to nine per cent in August, which is equivalent to 452,706 individuals, Reuters reported.

This is substantially less than July's figure of 9.6 per cent, but still equivalent to a 1.9 per cent increase in unemployment year-on-year.

Nikos Magginas, economist at the National Bank of Greece, attributed this monthly decline to the tourism industry,

He told Reuters: "Unemployment is lower than in the previous month, mainly because of the better then expected tourism season, with tourist arrivals shrinking by seven per cent."

Earlier this month, the European Commission predicted that joblessness would affect nine per cent of the Greek labor market by the end of 2009, rising to 10.2 per cent in 2010.

The country's statistics agency also revealed recently that the economy entered recession for the first time in 16 years in the first quarter of the year.