Job cuts pick up in February
More than 4,000 people have been put out of work so far this month as employment cutbacks pick up pace under the weight of the global crisis, the country’s largest private sector union group GSEE said yesterday. GSEE, which represents about 2 million workers, said 4,136 people joined the unemployment queue in February, up from 3,348 jobs slashed in December and 3,000 in November. The data derive from surveys carried out by GSEE in central and eastern Macedonia, Thrace, the Peloponnese and Attica in the sectors of industry, textiles, commerce and construction, the workers’ group said in a statement. Greece’s jobless rates in November rose marginally to 7.8 percent from 7.6 percent in the same month a year earlier. According to the most recent figures provided by the National Statistics Service, 384,988 people were seeking employment in Greece, where the total work force amounted to 4.5 million people.
