By Alexis Mitropoulos, professor at EKPA-president of ENYPEKK
OF government officials and government-friendly media, it is repeated that the course of the Greek market is supposedly improving to workthat in recent years 500,000 new jobs have been created and that unemployment decreased to pre-memorandum levels.
ARITHMETIC-QUANTITATIVE This assessment, “dry” and without taking into account important factors that affect the labor market, seems correct. However, it is by no means correct from a qualitative point of view, much more so when it is isolated from the characteristics and many functions of salaried work (salary level-overtime, daily/weekly hours employmentretirement age limits, taxation, inflation, etc.).
More specifically, it artificially hides the fact that the total number of people employed in 2024 (the workforce) is down by 317,000 compared to 2009, before we signed the memos. Consequently, unemployment decreased numerically, but at the same time the total number of employees also decreased.
ALSO, the executives of all recent governments, but also the systemic intelligentsia, avoid referring to the conclusions of official bodies and services regarding the great explosion, in recent years, of part-time work, but also of other forms of “flexible” work. , whose introduction was also facilitated by the laws Hatzidakis 4808/2021 and Georgiadis 4053/2023.
END, An important element related to and affecting unemployment rates is conclusions about the timing and evolution of salaries in recent years, which also goes in the opposite direction to the government’s narrative, since in recent years not only have they not increased (as the government claims), but they have also decreased at a nominal level and above all in terms of nominal strength.
Then, compared to August 2013, as evidenced by the tables below ELSTATwhere unemployment soared to 27.8% and the number of employees fell to 3,518,511, the situation is in fact much better.
But compared to August 2009, a year before we entered the memos, when unemployment reached 9% but employees were 4,570,415 (almost 1 million more), the government’s statement above does not correspond to reality.
Unemployment figures must therefore be read together and take into account both the size of the workforce and the quality of new jobs, as well as the large number of young people who have immigrated from the earliest years of memory to today.
THE REVELATIONS ELSTAT data deconstructs the government narrative. 6.5% reduction in employment in 2024 compared to 2009. The summary table listed with the important findings of ELSTAT, which records the employed, unemployed and economically inactive population for each month of August since 2009, is indicative until 2024.
OF the ELSTAT consolidated table shows that the number of employees in August 2024 is lower by 317,927 people (4,570,415 – 4,252,488) compared to 2009, i.e. lower by 6.95%! This rate of reduction in the number of workers must be estimated together with the level of unemployment over the period 2009-2024, all the more so as the number of those (mainly young people – “brain drain”) who immigrated in memory years is not taken into account. into consideration.
REVEALING These are the ELSTAT conclusions for the entire period 2009-2024, as shown in the tables below:
THE DEVIATION of the unemployment rate among DOUBLE and ELSTAT creates confusion in society. Deviation of 8.53% or 399,140 unemployed for the month of August 2024. The Hellenic Statistical Service (ELSTAT) announced 444,402 unemployed (9.5% rate) for August 2024, while the Public Employment Service (DYPAFormer OAED ) announced, for the same month, 843,542 unemployed (rate of 18.03%). In other words, ELSTAT counted 399,140 fewer unemployed people than DYPA for August 2024 (deviation rate of 8.53%).
THE BIG The discrepancy between the two organizations (almost double) is due, on the one hand, to the fact that the unemployment sample checks carried out by ELSTAT do not include long-term unemployed people (more than 12 months) – which is what DYPA is required by law to take into account and on the other hand the fact that ELSTAT considers as employees those who work at least one (1) hour per week (4 hours per month)!
THAT’S IT It is clear that ELSTAT’s statistical findings, with the unreserved assistance of friendly media, support the government’s narrative about development and the massive creation of new jobs.
However, from the actual DYPA numbers, which are systematically ignored, it is confirmed that even if a growth rate is statistically visible, it does not refer to substantial and sustainable growth for the benefit of society, but to growth “of poor production”. This does not extend to the broader social strata, who live (unfortunately even today, six years after the supposed release of the memoranda) in conditions of absolute or relative poverty.
Therefore, various media outlets and various journalists should not be influenced by government announcements based solely on selective and government-friendly records.
THE GOVERNMENT, Instead of celebrations and selective information coming from the announcements of organizations dealing with unemployment measurement (ELSTAT, DYPA, etc.), it should intensify its efforts to create more new, stable and well-paid jobs. Above all, you should not selectively highlight the findings and conclusions of organizations that serve your selfish political interests.