Late tourism start boosts July job data

Waiters and bartenders were the professions that boosted employment last month, taking the balance of hirings and departures in the local labor market to a surplus of almost 68,000 jobs, according to the Labor Ministry’s Ergani database.

Of course the figures released yesterday do not allow for any complacency, as both market experts and the government acknowledge how difficult the fall and the winter are likely to be.

Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis stated that the ministry is ready to meet the challenges of the next few months, including the impact of the pandemic and the recession on employment. The government is preparing targeted policies and actions to protect as many jobs as possible.

The delay in the start of the tourism season this year explains the surplus of 67,911 jobs in July, which is the best record for this month in the last 20 years. Given that in July 2019 the net result had been a loss of 14,691 jobs, the comparison with this year reveals a rise of 82,602 jobs in 12 months.

In January-July there were 170,470 fewer jobs created than in the same months of 2019.