Greek employment inched up in 2015, OECD report says

Employment in Greece in the third quarter of 2015 inched up to 44.7 percent from 43.1 percent in the same period in 2014, data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development published on Thursday show, while the rate is expected to keep rising over the next two years, reaching 45.5 percent by the end of 2016 and 46.8 percent in 2017.

However, the OECD warns in its Employment Outlook 2015 report that while employment is expected to grow gradually in crisis-hit countries over the next two years, unemployment still remains very high despite significant reductions in labor costs.

“The job gap with the end of 2007 remains large in some European countries, notably Greece, Ireland and Spain, at 9, 7.9 and 8.5 percentage points respectively,” the report noted.

The report found that labor markets in all its member states are continuing to recover from the crisis and employment is set to return to pre-crisis levels in 2017, but stresses wage growth remains weak.

Hourly wages in Greece, is said, were 22.5 percent lower in the third quarter of 2015 than they would have is wage growth had continued at its 2000-2007 rate.