ABSTRACT
Like most other European nations, Greece is troubled by high and growing unemployment. In 1996 10.34 per cent of the economically active were unemployed, up from only 4.04 per cent in 1981 and 7,65 per cent in 1991. Along with Spain and, to a lesser extent Italy, Greece is now cited as a high unemployment country in the literature (see, e.g., Symes 1995). Of the total number of unemployed, the high rates of unemployment among youth (29.8 per cent in 1995) and long-term unemployment (52.4 per cent in 1995) have been particularly worrisome. In both these aspects, Greece ranks above the EU average, though still slightly below the other three southern European countries. However, whereas youth and long-term unemployment have been declining in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, in Greece they have been rising (Eurostat 1996: 163).
