With unemployment in Greece at 26.4 percent after hitting a record high of 27 percent, Greece’s General Confederation of Labor (GSEE), the country’s largest private sector union, said that its researchers project that unemployment will reach 29 percent by the end of this year, meaning the number of unemployed Greeks will reach 1.45 million.
GSEE researchers also said that the average gross income in Greece had fallen by 29 percent since 2009, while the average price of goods and services had risen by 17 percent compared to 2007 levels.
A combination of big pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions demanded by international lenders in return for bailouts has reduced Greeks disposable income about 46 percent and led to the closing of more than 68,000 businesses as spending has fallen off a cliff. The jobless rate doesn’t include another near 500,000 people for whom year-long benefits have already expired.
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