Greece sets overall unemployment approach 28 percent ( 27.6 ) , youth unemployment hit 65 percent ... meanwhile PM Samaras heads to US to seek support from broke USA..... Good luck with that one.....

Troika Lenders Demand Confiscation Of Homes In "Bastion Of Stability" Greece

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/08/2013 - 11:01

As the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, visits the US to promote his nation as a "bastion of stability" in the eastern Mediterranean, things appear to be going from worst to worster in his nation. While 65% youth unemployment is a large and scary enough data point, and Greeks are in open revolt against tax collectors, the uproar over Troika's current demands to lift a ban prohibiting banks from confiscating homes is growing. From the people to the politicians, anger is brewing over the lifting of the ban but the banks (already mired in 27% default rates) are behind the decision to help recapitalize themselves (and are refusing to restructure loans). However, given that Greece has already used 75% of its bank bailout fund and that repossessing and auctioning homes (potentially based on 'social criteria') could cut home prices 12 to 21%... not exactly going to help bank balance sheets; and it would seem Greece will need more caves.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-08/greek-youth-unemployment-soars-record-65

Greek Youth Unemployment Soars To Record 65%

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/08/2013 08:13 -0400

• recovery
 
• Unemployment

RIP Greekovery.

What little hope there may have been that bad and/or deteriorating Greek economic data had peaked in the early part of 2013 and the country was set for a long overdue "recovery" was promptly extinguished following today's latest release of the Greek May labor force survey.

The headline news for the broader population was ugly:

• The number of employed was 3,621,153, a decline of 14,889 from April, and down 171,356 from a year earlier
• The number of unemployed was a record high 1,381,088, an increase of 43,467 from April, and up 193,668 from a year earlier
• The unemployment rate was a record high 27.6%, up from 26.9% in April and 23.8% a year earlier

But that was the "good" news.

The bad news? Greek youth (15-24 year old) unemployment halted its decline over the past few months only to explode higher from 57.5% in April to a whopping 64.9% in May! Needless to say this is a record high, and means that two thirds of all eligible for work youths can not find a job. That this is the most combustible combination for social upheaval if not war, is well known to anyone who has opened even one history book.

Source: Elstat

Greek unemployment hit new record in May of 27.6 pct [update]  May jobless rate climbs to 27.6 pct, up 16.3 pct vs May 2012 Greece's jobless rate hit a new record high of 27.6 percent in May, official national data showed on Thursday as the country staggers under austerity linked to its international bailout. Record joblessness is a nightmare for Greece's two-party coalition government as it scrambles to hit fiscal targets and show there is light at the end of the tunnel after years of unpopular tax rises and cuts to wages and pensions. Unemployment rose to 27.6 percent from an upwardly revised 27.0 percent reading in April, according to data from statistics service ELSTAT and was more than twice the average rate in the euro zone which stood at 12.1 percent in June. The latest reading was the highest since ELSTAT began publishing monthly jobless data in 2006. Greece and Spain have been hit with similar levels of sky-high unemployment, with latest Eurostat data showing seasonally adjusted unemployment in June at 26.9 percent for Greece and 26.3 percent in Spain. Spain itself does not publish monthly jobless figures directly comparable to Greece's own data, but Madrid's quarterly data shows its rate peaked at 27.2 percent in the first three months of this year. "Increased employment in tourism cannot offset the restructuring in many sectors of the economy and continuing weak demand," said economist Nikos Magginas at National Bank. However, he said improving exports and a strong tourism season would help to contain the further rise in joblessness expected this year. Tourism accounts for about 17 percent of Greece's economic output and one in five jobs. Revenues are seen rising 10 percent in 2013, to 11 billion euros, on the back of an expected record 17 million visitors. Data showed that those aged 15 to 24 remained the hardest-hit as the jobless rate for this age group registered 64.9 percent. With the economy suffering its sixth straight year of recession and 1.38 million people officially without jobs, the pain is felt across the board. Borrowers fall behind on loans and fewer workers pay into pension funds. A turnaround will take time to be felt in the labor market even if recovery sets in next year as authorities project. The central bank projects unemployment will peak at 28 percent before it starts to decline in 2015. Scrambling for ways to ease the pain for Greeks, Athens wants to tap about 170 million euros of EU regional development funds to launch job programs and has asked the European Commission to approve the move. [Reuters]

ekathimerini.com , Thursday August 8, 2013 (15:34) PM seeks support in US as unions resist reforms As Prime Minister Antonis Samaras seeks to drum up interest for sorely needed investments during a visit to the US, where he is to meet with President Barack Obama on Thursday, government officials in Athens are trying to press forward with the hugely unpopular economic reforms Greece has promised its foreign creditors. Samaras, who is scheduled to meet with Obama at 10 p.m. Greek time on Thursday at the White House in Washington following a separate meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry, was in New York on Wednesday for meetings with Greek-American entrepreneurs. According to sources, the premier is keen to stress the progress that Greece has made in its economic reform program in a bid to secure investment projects as well as tightening Greek ties with the US. In a related development, US Vice President Joe Biden expressed Washington’s support for Greece’s reform effort, noting in an interview with Kathimerini to be published on Thursday that the country’s continued presence in the eurozone was “overwhelmingly in our interest.” It remained clear, however, that Greek government officials will be hard pressed to implement reforms as ministers insisted on the need for Greece to honor pledges to the troika even as unionists emphasized their opposition to the changes. The government’s plans to transfer thousands of civil servants into a so-called mobility scheme, where they would get reduced pay for eight months ahead of their transfer to another civil service post or face dismissal, continued to stoke anger, particularly among teachers after it emerged that hundreds would be moved to the state health service. Some 1,300 out of 2,000 state school teachers who are due to join the mobility scheme will assume jobs in the health service, Deputy Education Minister Simeon Kedikoglou told Mega TV on Wednesday, adding that he could not rule out “further horizontal cuts” due to delays in administrative reforms. Kedikoglou, who did not specify what kind of posts teachers would be assigned to in the health service, blamed reform delays on ex-Administrative Reform Minister Antonis Manitakis, who is aligned with the former junior partner in the ruling coalition Democratic Left, saying the latter had “not believed in this reform” during his ministerial stint and had therefore dragged his feet. The head of the union of secondary school teachers (OLME), Themis Kotsifakis, reacted to Kedikoglou’s comments by declaring that his union would hold industrial action in September to protest the changes. ekathimerini.com , Thursday August 8, 2013 (07:10)