1 million people unemployed in Greece

ATHENS - Agence France-Presse

Greece’s Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leaves his office in Athens. REUTERS photo

Greece’s registered unemployed jumped to over a million people in November, or over 20 percent of the workforce, official data showed yesterday as Athens faced fresh austerity demands from its public creditors.

The state statistics agency said 1.029 million people were unemployed in November, with over 164,000 losing their jobs over the previous month and 405,000 over a year as the government neared a debt deal entailing further labor cuts.

Nearly half of those aged up to 24 are unemployed, and alongside women have been the hardest hit by a recession now in its fifth year.

Greek leaders yesterday fell short of striking a deal on austerity cuts, even as their finance minister headed to Brussels for crucial eurozone talks on a new bailout to avert a debt default. Before leaving Athens, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said he remained hopeful of winning the bailout loan from eurozone finance ministers.

“I leave for Brussels with hope that the Eurogroup will take a positive decision,” Venizelos said.