Greek labor market: The reduction of unemployment leave youth and women unaffceted

The labor market recovered but its quality characteristics remain negative. Young people, women and people with low qualifications still have high unemployment rates, while where there is an increase in employment it is not accompanied by an improvement in working conditions.

The gender inequality at work remains unchanged, while the unemployment rate is twice the average of the European Union of 27 countries.

Employment: Greeks work more than any other European

The data comes from the report of the Labor Institute of the General Confederation of Labor-GSEE, which notes a recovery in the quantitative dimensions of the labor market, which continued in the first half of 2023, however simultaneously emphasizing that this dynamic was not accompanied by a corresponding qualitative upgrade of the market.

Thus, Greece has the second highest unemployment rate in Europe. Accordingly, it records the lowest employment rate for young people under 25 years of age and the second lowest employment rate for both 20-64 year olds and women among EU member states.

Unemployment

Unemployment decreased by 2.9 percentage points in May 2023 compared to the corresponding period in 2022, closing at 10.8%. In particular, from the beginning of 2023 it shows signs of stabilization, with the unemployment rate in the first quarter above 11%.

Employment opportunity for 200 Greeks with autism

The evolution of the employment rate in the entire population shows a similar picture. Employment increased by 0.9 percentage points in the first quarter of 2023 compared to 2022, reaching 53.6 percentage points of the total population.

Despite this, the employment rate is 7.7 percentage points below the EU average, which stood at 61.3%. Greece presents the second lowest overall employment rate among the 20-64-year-olds (61.7%) among all EU member countries, with Italy recording the worst performance (61.2%), followed by Spain (64.7%).

Youth – Women

In terms of youth employment, Greece records the worst performance among all EU countries, with the employment rate for young people under the age of 25 being just 18.2%.

Accordingly, female unemployment in May 2023 was 14.4 percentage points, showing a decrease of 2.2 points compared to the corresponding period of 2022

It is noteworthy that women’s unemployment is almost double that of men, with their difference reaching 6.7 percentage points at the end of the first quarter of 2023.