Greek workforce is shrinking

Greek unemployment returned this May to the level of 10.8%, a similar rate to that of May 2004. The latest available Hellenic Statistical Authority data show that the number of unemployed in Greece was 506,000, while in May 2004 they had numbered 517,000, which is roughly on the same level.

What is not similar is the number of employees. With unemployment at 10.6% in May 2004, the country then counted 4.37 million employed people. Nowadays, with a corresponding unemployment rate, it counts 4.19 million people. with jobs

Consequently, 190,000 workers are missing from the labor market, which is roughly the same as the populations of the regional cities of Volos and Serres put together. The phenomenon is attributed to the shrinking of the country’s population, as well as to the brain drain.

The country’s labor force has today shrunk to 4.7 million, from the 5 million it was before the country entered the bailout process in the early 2010s.

The risk is visible: Even if the target to reduce unemployment below 8% (a historic low) is met, the country will not reach – without a substantial change in the composition of the population – the number of workers it entered the streamlining effort, i.e. close to 4.6 million.