As Greece enters its sixth straight year of recession, unemployment continues to rise to new records.

Specifically, the jobless rate hit 26.8% in October with 1.34m Greeks out of work, according to data published today. Unemployment has practically tripled since it began to rise in September 2009 and is currently up 38% since October 2011.

Youth unemployment (corresponding to Greeks between the ages of 15 and 24) also hit a new record of no less than 56.6%.

In a report published earlier this week, Morgan Stanley warned that the Hellenic economy will not rebound in 2014 but rather face a 1% contraction and continued to stress the political risks emanating from the clash between the implementation of austerity measures and growing social discontent.

Even the IMF (as it prepares to meet next week, on January 16th, for a tentatively scheduled review of Greece's progress on reforms as established under the country's bailout agreement) admitted that they had failed to see how the enormous spending cuts that formed part of austerity measures would undermine growth. At the beginning of the week, The Washington Post published a report written by the IMF's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, and colleague Daniel Leigh on forecasting errors.

"Forecasters significantly underestimated the increase in unemployment and the decline in domestic demand associated with fiscal consolidation," they wrote.

JM

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