Uncertainty hurts job prospects in most sectors of the economy
Greek employers are clearly concerned in the face of the uncertainty hanging over the country’s business environment, with 18 percent expecting a reduction in the number of employees, according to the findings of a survey by ManpowerGroup.
The insecurity was evident in that 26 percent of respondents said they did not know whether there would be any changes in their enterprises in terms of employment in the last quarter of the year. The socioeconomic instability has had a smaller impact on the sector of financial, insurance, real estate and corporate services as well as tourism, as these two domains see employee numbers rising.
The ManpowerGroup survey on the prospects of the labor market in the October-December 2015 period showed a reduction of five percentage points, from an increase of 3 percent to a decline of 2 percent, in hiring prospects compared with the third quarter of the year. Compared to the fourth quarter of last year the slump came to 11 percentage points.
Of 750 participants in the survey, just 5 percent expected an increase in the number of employees, against 18 percent who saw a drop and 51 percent who expected no change.
The chairwoman and chief executive officer of ManpowerGroup, Venetia Koussia, points to the huge increase in the share of employers who responded that they did not know whether there would be any change in their staff numbers in the coming quarter. It now amounts to 26 percent, against just 5 percent a year earlier. This uncertainty, she says, demands the substantial cooperation of all parties involved in the development of constructive policies to prevent this 26 percent from joining the 18 percent that expect layoffs in their companies.
The survey also found that the work force is expected to shrink in seven out of nine financial sectors during the last quarter of 2015. The domain of electricity, natural gas and water fares worst, with a -11 percent employment prospect, but there a general deterioration was noted across all nine sectors.
