GREECE: Health sector workers demonstrate as Greek unemployment hits a new record and the government pushes on with economic austerity reforms

Record ID: 714296

  • Title: GREECE: Health sector workers demonstrate as Greek unemployment hits a new record and the government pushes on with economic austerity reforms
  • Date: 12th September 2013
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (SEPTEMBER 12 2013) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF GREECE'S STATE EMPLOYMENT CENTRE EMPLOYMENT CENTRE LOGO VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ENTERING AND LEAVING THE CENTRE, WAITING IN LINE INSIDE (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) NIKOLETTA ARGIOGITIS, UNEMPLOYED ENGLISH TUTOR, AGED 29, SAYING: "Unfortunately what I see around me is that things are getting worse. More and more people are losing
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Economic News,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6ZNWRP0VX62DAGQB6XY2SRA7K
  • Story Text: Greece's unemployment rate hit a new record of 27.9 percent in June - up from 27.6 in May - data by the country's statistics service (ELSTAT) showed on Thursday (September 12), as the labour market continues to buckle under austerity policies linked to the country's bailout.
    Record joblessness is a headache for Greece's two-party coalition government as it scrambles to hit fiscal targets and carry out structural reforms demanded by its international creditors under a bailout.
    Greek unemployment is more than twice the average rate in the euro zone of 12 percent. The Greek rate has tripled since 2008, at the start of a recession and just before the debt crisis began.
    Greece wants to return to markets next year in order to avoid more loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, which come with harsh cost cutting measures in the economy, but it may need another small loan next year.
    In its latest wave of reforms the government is to sack 15,000 state workers by 2014. It is transferring another 25,000 state workers this year to other jobs. It is feared some of those transferred will end up being laid off as well, sparking a new wave of strikes and protests this month.
    Those to be sacked or transferred include workers in the health sector, who protested outside the Health Ministry on Thursday, fearing for their future, after walking off their job for four hours.

    "Unfortunately what I see around me is that things are getting worse. More and more people are losing their jobs. Wages are being reduced. I just don't know what will happen," said Nikoletta Argiogitis, a 29-year-old English tutor who has been unemployed for three months and it still trying to obtain unemployment benefits.

    "I am concerned about the future. In fact I am thinking I may need to leave Greece. I already left once for my masters degree. But then I decided to return here to get a job. But now it looks quite probable that I will go back to Berlin, where I was before," said another demonstrator Dimitris Gerousakis, 33.
    A national strike by public sector workers is planned for next week.
    The economy is in its sixth straight year of recession, but on a positive note, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said this week he expected the recession to be less than forecast this year, and Greece is on course to achieve a primary budget surplus in 2013. Samaras has said he will try to relieve the burden of those most vulnerable if the country achieves a surplus.
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