Striking shipyard workers chant slogans in front of riot police during a protest demanding jobs in their sector, outside the Greek Finance ministry in Athens on Tuesday, July 10, 2012. Greece has had to impose harsh austerity measures, including big cuts to pensions and salaries, to secure billions of euros worth of rescue loans from the IMF and other European countries that use the euro, to avoid bankruptcy.(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Greek unemployment rises again
Striking shipyard workers chant slogans in front of riot police during a protest demanding jobs in their sector, outside the Greek Finance ministry in Athens on Tuesday, July 10, 2012. Greece has had to impose harsh austerity measures, including big cuts to pensions and salaries, to secure billions of euros worth of rescue loans from the IMF and other European countries that use the euro, to avoid bankruptcy.(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
AP /
July 12, 2012
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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Unemployment in Greece has risen yet again, reaching 22.5 percent in April this year, a massive jump from the 16.2 percent in the same month last year, and up from the 22 percent in March.
According to the figures released Thursday by the country’s statistics service, 307,775 people lost their jobs between April 2011 and the same month this year, a 38.4 percent increase. Of those, 27,493 people lost their jobs between March and April this year, a 2.5 percent jump.
Greece has relied on billions of euros in international loans since May 2010, and has imposed a series of austerity measures in return, including slashing salaries and pensions and increasing taxes. But the measures have left the country mired in a deep recession, currently in its fifth year.
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