Reporting from Greece: 1) most unemployed people are not entitled to any kind of allowance. There are big groups of unemployed people (women, people aged 50+,

Reporting from Greece: 1) most unemployed people are not entitled to any kind of allowance. There are big groups of unemployed people (women, people aged 50+, specialized workers eg constructor workers ) who have given up the hope to find a job except from some occasional paydays (most likely black labor) which they may find from word of mouth. They do not bother going to the "job center/unemployment office". 2) The unemployment office arranges for "training" where groups of unemployed people can attend. The attendants are paid like a 100-300e per month for 1-6 months. During these (otherwise useless) trainings these people are no longer considered unemployed and one can read these disgusting news titles "unemployment down to 30% from 31.5%". I myself was never counted as an unemployed in Greece until I found my first position (in the UK as an engineer mind you... )