The majority of Greece’s 1,274,843 jobless receive no unemployment allowance. According Employment Agency (OAED) , only 102,026 jobless received the allowance in April 2014. That is less than one out of ten of the country’s at least 1,274,843 men and women without job.
Although employees pay their social security contributions month-in month out during their entire working life, they are eligible to receive unemployment allowance for only one year, when they lose their job. Long-time jobless are been simply kicked out from the social system.
In Greece’s of austerity loan agreements, the jobless allowance is just 360 euro per month. Not much in a country suffering from recession and deflation.
This morning I saw a middle-aged woman on television saying that she was unemployed for three years and therefore she stopped receiving the allowance since two years.
How do these people come along? With the help of relatives and friends, piling up debts that they will most likely never be able to pay back.
Quiz How many people have got no unemployment allowance in the last 4 years?
ELSTAT Unemployment month March – unemployed in numbers
2009 9.2% 459,957
2010 11.7% 589,021
2011 16.1% 793,769
2012 22.6% 1,095,478
2013 27.2% 1,304,263
2014 26.8% 1,274,843
BTW: Today, ELSTAT issued the unemployment figures for March 2014 as 26.8%.
In comparison February 2014: 29.9% and March 2013: 27.9%
However the ELSTAT noted that in March the counting was based on 2011-census, while the statistics in previous months were based on 2001-census and therefore the figures and rates were not comparable.
PS I’m going to cook a spicy Ratatouille today that cannot be compared to previous stewed vegetables dishes as the ingredients will be slightly different.
It’s a scandal! Apparently the problem of support for the long term unemployed is still unsolved. What the eff is the government doing all the time?
in case you’ve missed some blog posts: the government has been subsidizing short-term jobs (from 6 weeks up to 5 months, payment 500 euro per month minus the social security contributions)
Indeed, I missed that. This isn’t necessarily a bad idea, except that Greece is in a demand crisis and there isn’t much need for additional workers. So, this is a strawfire, nothing else. There’s got to be more money for rhe lower incomes first to trigger the economy.
Anyway, looking at the numbers you posted I suspect the increasing number of people without finacial support are mostly long term jobless, or am I wrong?
I’m busy with the gov’t reshuffle right now. I’ll come back to you later.
No haste, take your time. The reshuffle is an interesting point. I’d like to see more info on the new guys, too.
P.S.: I hope that your point about changing the ingredients of Ratatouille doesn’t mean you’re cooking rats now, kt!
of course not!
Ha, ok. Glad to see you’re ok. All the best!