Greece Debt Woes Worsen

Going from bad to worse seems like the pattern here:

ATHENS (Reuters) - As international lenders hammer out the tough austerity measures Greece must take to escape a debt crisis shaking the euro zone, more and more Greeks are losing jobs with no visible recovery in sight."No matter where I ask for a job, I am turned down. I don't know how to feed my two children anymore," said Thanassis Avgeris, 46, who lost his construction job more than a year ago.

Waiting in the queue at an Athens branch of the state Unemployment Agency, Avgeris is one of many suffering the effects of the near collapse of the construction sector, which had boomed before the 2004 Olympics.Figures released on Tuesday showed the January jobless rate jumped to a six-year high of 11.3 percent from 9.4 percent in the same month last year. A total 567,000 jobless were reported, a 22 percent year-on-year increase.

"Conditions in the labor market are deteriorating sharply," said Nikos Magginas, economist at the National Bank of Greece. "Current trends suggest that the average unemployment rate will exceed 12 percent in 2010," Magginas added.