Unemployed To Reach 1 Million

Due to layoffs and serial collapses of businesses the number of people unemployed increased by 276,000 in January at the rate of 10,000 a day bringing the total to 934,000 at the end of the month. Experts now agree that if this rate has continued through February then the current total has exceeded 1 million.

The National Statistics Office reported Friday that the unemployment rate went up to 4.5% in January from December's 3.1%, the highest rate since February 1987. Those unemployed for less than a year number 669,000, which is a 55.9% on December and those without work for over a year increased to 124,000, up 12.7%. Young graduates from college or high school comprise 141,000 of the total unemployed an increase of 18.5 % from the previous month.