• The unemployment “autofobia”: only 29 percent employed in the state and private sectors combined, 18 percent officially recognized as unemployed, 53 percent “employed” in the countryside. • Urban unemployment: 38 percent - most likely the highest in Europe. - PD kept its word: it carried out its contract with the Albanian people, and led them into economic ruin. Together with all Albanians, we too, waiting on these cold and damp days for the warmth of the spring sun, wanted to warm our spirits with the warmth of the true word from Mr. Gramoz Pashko, the government’s economic spokesperson, a rare speaker who is exact with figures. We took the “Voice” of 11 March to find the very real promise of the Meksi government of an economic boom and a doubling of real wages. Meanwhile, we were reassured from our greed, since we had often heard that the government and the Prime Minister planned to work wonders with the “boom.” But here we are dealing with another wonder. The figures, according to Mr. Pashko, give us an extremely bleak, painful and dangerous picture. They speak of an active population of 1,100,000 people. Of these, only 262,000 are employed in the state (public) sector and in the private sector, in total (without separating it from the black market) and not in the privatization plan. But what do the others live on? Are they unemployed? Yes! In total, officially recognized unemployed persons number 198,991, which brings unemployment to 18 percent (from 15 percent in 1991). And the others? The others, according to Mr. Pashko, are in the countryside, “employed” in the countryside. There are 580,000 of them! But what does this mean? It means that all of them have returned to the agricultural sector as their only shelter and means of livelihood. This does not mean that they are truly employed. In the countryside today, the majority live in poverty and on little land, with primitive tools and no market. Thus, if the cities alone are counted, real unemployment reaches around 38 percent. This is a figure that places Albania at the top of Europe for unemployment. In this sense the government has no right to boast of false statistics. “Employment” in the countryside is often just a form of camouflage for unemployment. Even those who are in the city, and are counted somewhere as having temporary jobs, in reality live without stable work, without sufficient income, and without a future. The Meksi government and the leaders of the PD promised the people an economic boom. Today we have shutdowns of enterprises, falling production, a shrinking market, rising prices and mass unemployment. This is their contract with the Albanian people: not prosperity, but economic ruin.