While figures for last November show that 2,400 Greeks lost their jobs that month, the General Confederation of Greek Labour (GSEE) estimates that the overall picture of employment in Greece will become even more negative from March 2009, when expectations from the retail sales period will have evaporated.

Also, an announcement of new voluntary retirement programmes for another 4,000 workers at state companies and corporations, the quiet preparation by several banks for programmes regarding extensive voluntary departures, the non-renewal of staff contracts for those employed under the status of the “hired” and temporarily employed personnel are the first signs of the widely anticipated reduction in employment.

The fact that the country has continued to rely on the main pillars of construction, tourism, shipping and the like for years rather than looking into new areas of economic development is also likely to hurt employees this winter.

However, what worries GSEE most is the possible rapid escalation of poverty, particularly the form that is not registered statistically through unemployment but also includes employees and pensioners. This phenomenon is not even reduced when the joblessness rate goes down.

The Poverty Observatory set up by GSEE and the University of Athens estimates that Greece has a long-term rate of poverty that affects 14 percent of the population – the second-largest percentage among the 15 “old” members of the European Union.