Unemployment in Greece was running at 9.6 percent in July 2009 against 7.0 percent in July 2008 and 8.6 percent in the preceding month of June 2009, according to figures released last week by Greece’s National Statistics Service (NSS).
According to a survey on the active population conducted by the NSS, the number of unemployed in July 2009 stood at 476,707 against 347,935 in July 2008.
Commenting on the rising unemployment figures reported by on Wednesday, Labour and Social Insurance Minister Andreas Loverdos described the situation as “tragic” and one “that demands we devote all our strength to getting the country back on its feet”.
The announcement that unemployment had risen to 9.6 percent in July before the tourist season had ended, indicated an “explosive” rise in unemployment according to the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE).
According to GSEE, “real unemployment rates are more than 15 percent, while at the end of the tourist period the situation will become dire”.
Greece’s largest umbrella trade union organisation stated that workers and society were now “paying the cost of an anti-developmental and anti-labour policy, which attempted to solve the problem of unemployment with four-day weeks and fully flexible labour relations”.