The state statistics agency said over 1.07 million people were unemployed February, with over 19,000 losing their jobs in a month and over 336,000 over a year as Greece neared completion on a historic debt wipeout.

The jobless rate in January was 21.3 per cent, the agency said.

Over half of those aged up to 24 -- 53.8 per cent -- in addition to women are the hardest hit by a recession now in its fifth year.

A general election on Sunday punished mainstream parties tied to an unpopular EU-IMF loan agreement seen as the main cause of the recession.

Smaller leftist and nationalist groups opposed to the bailout, including a neo-Nazi party, elected 151 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament but no clear winner emerged.

If ongoing government talks between parties fail, new elections will have to be called next month.