Greek Unemployment Hits Record High

May 10, 2012 from Euronews

The number of people out of work in Greece has hit a new record. The unemployment rate was 21.7 seven percent of the workforce in February and in the 15-24 age group, joblessness stood at a record 54 percent. Nearly 1.1 million people were out of work, 42 percent more than in the same month last year, with the situation worst in big urban centres, particularly Athens. The latest figures underscored the pain inflicted by the austerity measures required by the EU and IMF. Over the last couple of years, there has been a wave of layoffs, bankruptcies and company closures in the wake of government budget cuts. They have been imposed under the terms of the international bailout to save Greece from a chaotic default. It is estimated Greece's economy will have shrunk by about 20 percent from 2008, in the country's deepest and longest post-war recession, with around half a million jobs being destroyed in the process.

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Greece

Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. According to the 2011 census, Greece's population is around 11 million. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, its urban area also including Piraeus. Greece is strategically located at the cr... Explore this topic

Unemployment

Unemployment occurs when people are without work and actively seeking work. The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor forc... Explore this topic

Austerity

In economics, austerity describes policies used by governments to reduce budget deficits during adverse economic conditions. These policies can include spending cuts, tax increases, or a mixture of the two. Austerity policies may be attempts to demonstrate governments' liquidi... Explore this topic

Demographic profile

A demographic or demographic profile is a term used in marketing and broadcasting, to describe a demographic grouping or a market segment. This typically involves age bands, social class bands and gender. A demographic profile can be used to determine when and where advertisin... Explore this topic

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The EU operates through a system of supranational independent institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisions by the member states. Institutions of the EU in... Explore this topic

Alexis Tsipras

Alexis Tsipras is a Greek left-wing politician, member of the Hellenic parliament, president of the Synaspismos political party since 2008, head of the SYRIZA parliamentary group since 2009 and Leader of the Opposition since June 2012. Explore this topic

Athens

Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state. A centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home... Explore this topic

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The International Monetary Fund is an international organization that was initiated in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference and formally created in 1945 by 29 member countries. The IMF's stated goal was to assist in the reconstruction of the world’s international payment syste... Explore this topic

Percentage

In mathematics, a percentage is a number or ratio as a fraction of 100. It is often denoted using the percent sign, “%”, or the abbreviation “pct.” For example, 45% is equal to 45/100, or 0.45. A related system which expresses a number as a fraction of 1000 uses the terms "per... Explore this topic

Government budget

A government budget is a document plan of public revenue and expenditure that is often passed by the legislature, approved by the chief executive-or president and presented by the Finance Minister to the nation. The budget is also known as the Annual Financial Statement of the... Explore this topic

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