THE REAL impact of rising unemployment is not in the percentages being bandied about and argued over about by politicians, unions and employers but in the queue at any labour office around the island.
“I was working as an assistant at my husband’s company, but this is the first time that I’ve come here and I’m not sure whether I’m entitled to anything,” said Maria Meliou, 37 said.
Meliou, who has three children, has been unemployed for three months. Describing how her husband’s business – a company dealing in construction materials – started to go downhill about a year ago Meliou said that on top of this they had to pay the €350 company levy last month and were also blighted with a number of thefts worth hundreds of euros.
“We’ve also got a son in Greece studying and the rent over there is extortionate, if he could get a job that would really help but I don’t see that happening,” said Meliou, becoming more and more agitated as she listed more things that had to be paid or that had gone up in price.
Melious is one of some 33,000 now unemployed as is Elena Constantinou, who said that she had been unemployed for a month, and had only found out moments before speaking to the Sunday Mail, that her husband had just been laid off as well. They have a one-year-old baby.
There are also young twentysomethings who have barely seen a glimmer of hope despite their years spent specialising in a their desired subject, there’s middle aged professionals who’ve been made redundant for lesser paid recruits, and then there’s all the working class labourers who are unfortunate enough to be suffering the brunt of a shrinking industry.
Those left without a job are eligible for unemployment benefit which amounts to 70 per cent of the wage they were receiving at their last job. But benefits only last for a period of six months, before being completely cut off. And while the job market shrinks, it means more and more people are left wondering if they’ll be receiving any income at all if no employment opportunities crop up before their six months are through. And there is a growing likelihood that they will not.
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