Massive Unemployment Expected

Massive unemployment is expected to result from the passing of legislation regarding lay offs by the National Assembly Saturday, with experts predicting a minimum of 200,000 to 300,000 initial firings and a final figure anywhere between 1 million and 2 million. The government is expected to implement the bill on either Monday or Tuesday. Businesses including automobile manufacturing, shipbuilding, chemical engineering and textile production are reported to be already drawing up plans for mass lay offs from production lines, by the end of February. Since the end of last year most have already fired white collar staff including directors and managers, but this will be the first time production workers are let go.

The Ministry of Labor stated that at the end of January unemployment stood at 660,000, but that it expects this figure to reach up to 960,000 by the end of February. Labor leaders are more pessimistic saying that the scope of the lay off legislation will put many more workers out of a job than predicted.