The Greek economic depressionary catastrophe continues to merrily chug along. Hours ago, Greek Elstat reported that February unemployment [6] rose to a new record high of 27.0%, with the January number revised from 27.2% to 26.7%, up from 21.9% in February 2012, and almost as if unlike the Greek BLS is not even trying to fudge numbers anymore and wants to show a deteriorating situation (or, as it was called in the Old Normal - "reality").
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That said, if the numbers were indeed gamed, the Greek statistical bureau had person-level detail: "The number of employed amounted to 3,568,186 persons. ?he number of unemployed amounted to 1,320,189 while the number of inactive to 3,358,649.... The number of employed decreased by 270,766 persons compared with February 2012 (a 7.1% rate of decrease) and by 28,650 persons compared with January 2013 (a 0.8% rate of decrease). Unemployed increased by 245,021 persons (a 22.8% rate of increase) compared with February 2012 and by 11,663 persons compared with January 2013 (a 0.9% rate of increase)."
Looking at the Shadow economy, the number of people who are inactive, or "neither worked neither looked for a job", hit 3,358,649. This number is just shy of the total people employed, meaning in 2-3 months, the Greek shadow economy will be greater than the official, taxed-one. A gender breakdown shows that females have never had it worse with 31% unemployment, compared to 24.1% for men.
But the most stunning number was the number of unemployed Greek youths (15-24), which hit a record 64.2%, the highest number on record, and a mindblowing 5% increase from the 59.3% youth unemployment reported in January [8], and a 10% increase from a year ago (and compared to 16.9% in neighboring Turkey [9]).
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Remember: all those unemployed people according to CNBC are just employed people on the sidelines, and is a bullish sign of pent up jobs. And sooner or later, they will reemerge as victorious workers in some European Kolhoz bringing victory and prosperity to the latest European KomIntern.