Unemployment in Greece: Part-time and long-term unemployed are on the rise

Although unemployment is falling in Greece, the qualitative data of three recent reports show some worrying records about developments in the labor market.

The reports of both the Bank of Greece and state employment agency DYPA (formerly OAED) record 500,000 long-term unemployed persons (unemployed for more than 12 months), as well as that 50% of the recruitments concern part-time or rotating employment positions.

At the same time, the data of the “ERGANI” Information System record a slowdown in the creation of new jobs in the eleventh month of 2022 compared to 2021 (from 135,680 last year to 63,980 this year).

The unemployment rate in Greece, although falling steadily and significantly in recent years, remains the highest in the Eurozone (along with that of Spain).

According to the DYPA, the total number of registered unemployed, based on job search (job seekers), for the month of November 2022, amounted to 1,055,979 people. Of these, 535,308 (percentage 50.69%) are registered in the DYPA register for a period equal to or more than 12 months.

The monthly figures of the Labor Force Survey until October 2022 and the ERGANIS information system for the period January-October indicate a slowdown in the labor market for the second half of the year. Part-time and rotational employment reached 48.5% (versus 54.0% and 46.0% respectively in the first ten months of 2021).

Employment, according to Hellenic Statistical Authority-ELSTAT’s Labor Force Survey data, increased significantly in the first half of 2022, with the number of employed registering an annual rate of change of 8.9%, compared to -2.0% in 2021.

It is worth noting that the positive picture presented by employment in the first half of 2022 is due to the particularly positive course of the first quarter (11.6%), as in the second quarter the growth rate of employment, although it remained high, slowed down (6.4%).

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In the meantime, the balance of employment in the eleven months of January – November 2022 was positive by 63,980 jobs, while in the month of November, the balance was negative by 83,627 jobs, according to the data of the “ERGANI” Information System.

It is noted that the employment balance is negative every November, since 2001 when data are available, mainly due to the end of the tourist season. According to ERGANI data, the sectors with the highest negative hiring-dismissal balances last month were accommodation (-29,110 positions) and catering services (-22,181 positions), sectors in which, respectively, a large number of recruitments took place in April and May .

On the contrary, the balance was positive in education (+8,009 positions), the food industry (+1,750 positions), mineral extraction (+881 positions) etc.

In total, in the eleven months of January – November, recruitment announcements reached 2,707,204 and departures reached 2,643,224 (1,608,080 terminations of open-ended contracts or terminations of fixed-term contracts and 1,035,144 voluntary departures).

Thus, the balance of wage employment flows in the first eleven months of the year was positive by 63,980 jobs.

However, in the corresponding eleven months of 2021, employment flows were much higher and reached 135,680 jobs.