Greece to Eliminate 15,000 Government Jobs ATHENS - Despite new evidence of a deteriorating economy, Greece said on Monday that it would cut 15,000 state jobs this year as part of new austerity measures it intends to adopt to secure new debt agreements from international lenders. Athens is racing to push through economic changes that it hopes will persuade its private sector creditors to grant easier debt repayment terms and will prompt Europe to release 130 billion euros, or $171 billion, in the next round of bailout money it needs to avoid defaulting on bond payments due in March. Negotiations with its creditors were continuing Monday, even as the austerity measures already in place were making it increasingly difficult for the Greek economy to outrun the country's mounting debt burden. Greece's debt rose to 159.1 percent of gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2011, from 138.8 percent a year earlier, according to data released Monday by Eurostat, the European Union's statistical agency. That rising debt ratio, if it continues, will make it hard for Greece to meet the 120 percent level for the year 2020 that is one of the targets for Greece's European bailout program. Under its new prime minister, Lucas D. Papademos, an economist and former vice president at the European Central Bank, the Greek government has promised to cut 150,000 jobs by 2015 from the public sector, which employs an estimated 750,000 people. In that context, the 15,000 cuts announced Monday would be only a relatively small step toward the eventual target. But public sector layoffs have long been taboo in Greece, where the constitution protects state workers from being fired. So any cuts presumably would need to come through attrition or eliminating positions. The Greek administrative reform minister, Dimitris Reppas, in announcing the job cuts on Monday, did not provide details on how they would be carried out. The country's two main labor unions, anticipating a new barrage of austerity measures, including wage cuts in the private sector, called a 24-hour general strike for Tuesday, which is expected to disrupt transportation and other public services. Three separate protest rallies have been planned for central Athens alone. Some economists argue that Greece's problems show that austerity is the wrong medicine for the struggling economy. Two years of spending cuts have weighed on employment, with the Greek jobless rate at 19 percent. The International Monetary Fund has forecast that Greece's economy will contract by about 3 percent in 2012. A shrinking economy, by reducing tax revenue, could make it even more difficult for Greece to meet its debt reduction goals. As negotiations between the Greek government and its lenders dragged on Monday, political maneuvering and gamesmanship were much in evidence in Athens. The leader of the right-leaning Popular Orthodox Rally, Giorgos Karatzaferis, called for the establishment of a technocratic government similar to the one that Italy assembled under Prime Minister Mario Monti. Mr. Karatzaferis added that he would not continue discussing the terms of the bailout for Greece until ministers from the Socialist party, or Pasok, "leave the government." Pasok is the largest party in the governing coalition, which also includes the center-right New Democracy party and the Popular Orthodox Rally. The leader of the New Democracy party, Antonis Samaras, said he would continue to oppose any economic measures that might deepen Greece's recession. Although the outlier among European debtors, Greece is by no means the only member of the euro currency union that exceeds the 60 percent debt-to-G.D.P. ratio that is supposed to be a goal for member nations. Eurostat said Monday that the debt ratios of the 17 euro zone countries as a group rose to 87.4 percent of gross domestic product in the third quarter, from 83.2 percent a year earlier. For all the 27 European Union nations, the debt ratio rose to 82.2 percent, from 78.5 percent. Those averages remain below the approximately 100 percent level for the United States and 200 percent for Japan. But because global investors still view those two countries" government bonds as havens, Washington and Tokyo have not faced the credit crises plaguing some of Europe's debtor nations. Among the most indebted euro members, Italy's debt ratio rose 0.5 point, to 119.6 percent, in the third quarter from a year earlier, though it did show progress in shaving 1.6 points from the second quarter of 2011. Portugal's debt ratio rose 18.9 points from a year earlier, to 110.1 percent, while Ireland's rose more than 16 points, to 104.9 percent. Niki Kitsantonis reported from Athens and David Jolly from Paris.