Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ hope of getting the shattered economy back on track as soon as next year is being undercut by a problem even said seems perhaps the biggest challenge, the record unemployment rate, that a study published Oct. 3 said will soar from 27.4 percent now to 34 percent in three years.
The dire news came from GSEE‘s Labor Institute, associated with the country’s private sector labor union that has been orchestrating protests and strikes for 3 1/2 years against austerity measures being imposed by the government on the orders of international lenders. None have persuaded any change in policy while pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions have pushed the number of people out of work to nearly 1.4 million.
With the government set to fire scores of thousands of public workers over the next two years, GSEE said the unemployment rate will spike rapidly. According to the same report, about 1 million jobs have been lost in Greece since October 2008.
Meanwhile, the 27.4 percent jobless rate posted in March by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) was the highest percentage to be recorded by a western country in the past 30 years, the study found.
The institute warned that a decision by the Greek government and the Troika of foreign lenders to continue with the current policy mix will have “devastating consequences” for the country’s GDP and employment in the coming years.
The rate for those under 25 has been ranging from 60 to 65 percent. Samaras had promised to hire 75,000 of them in January but hasn’t said a word about it for months.
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