Celebrations about the fall in the unemployment rate and the increase in employment are one side of the coin.
The other, probably the Ministry of Labor, would not like to become more widely visible.
Because this is where the major problems of the labour market lie. Problems that have not yet been resolved, which reveal a very ugly picture, which if not corrected immediately, will cause significant damage to the economic development model supported by the current Greek state.
And they will be a brake on future generations.
The numbers are indisputable and come from the GSEE’s annual Labor Institute (INE) Report.
So let’s explain:
- Employment in Greece is increasing year after year. It reached 61.8% in 2023. However, it is still 8.6 percentage points behind the European average! Furthermore, a small but important detail: despite the continuous increase, Greece ranks second to last in the EU in terms of employment rate…
- The difference between the employment of men and women in 2023 reached 18 percentage points. Even worse, people between the ages of 15 and 29 have a 27.4 point discrepancy in terms of employment compared to people between the ages of 50 and 64!
- The differences in employment by region clearly show the magnitude of the problem within the country. The lowest percentages were found in Western Macedonia (55.6%), Thessaly (58%) and Western Greece (59.4%). On the contrary, the highest were recorded in the Peloponnese (65.5%), Attica (64%), Central Greece (63.2%) and Crete (63%). The differences range from 3.6 units to 9.9 units in the upper region. It is understood that regional inequalities must be addressed “here and now” if the State wants to achieve balanced development in the country.
- Part-time employment in Greece was measured at 7.3% in 2023, one of the lowest rates as it is 10.5 points below the European average. It is obvious that we should rejoice in this fact. But when we analyze the conclusions of part-time workers a little more, we see the “other side” of the coin: 42.8% of those who work part-time in the country say that they chose this way of working, not to increase their income, but why couldn’t they find a full-time job, as was their main objective! This percentage is 23.4 points higher than the corresponding percentage in the EU. Therefore, the choice was made out of the need to survive, as far as one can tell, given that part-time work has a correspondingly limited remuneration.
- Regarding working hours, the numbers show that almost six in ten workers (58.2%) in 2023 said they had worked overtime. The corresponding percentage in the EU is just 33.9%.
Thus, in Greece, workers will either have difficulty finding a balance between work and their free time, often with low wages and limited prospects, or they will work a few hours a day for even lower wages!
Are we sure we want to celebrate this damn thing?
Are we sure, as a society, that we can see the “other side” of the coin, in terms of the country’s job market?
Probably not…