Greece's large number of self-employed and the population's low level of participation in the workforce will keep the jobless rate high…
Greece's large number of self-employed and the population's low level of participation in the workforce will keep the jobless rate high, the Research Institute for Tourism (
Professor Panagiotis Pavlopoulos last week presented a comparative study of Greece and its fellow EU member-states which indicated that Greece has a high number of unemployed in the 15-24 year-old age group while at the same time it has the lowest proportion of jobless among the best educated individuals (6.7% compared to the EU average of 12.6%). Notably, Greece has the highest proportion of self-employed, at 45.7% compared to the EU average of 17.1%. Meanwhile, Greece is lagging behind in skills upgrading for employees, particularly in tourism and public administration.
ITEP predicts that Greece's annual economic growth will not exceed 3.5% between now and 2010, and that this would act to reduce unemployment to 5%.
The report stated that a development strategy was needed in order to speed up the rate of development and create jobs in areas like tourism.
In line with the view of several international bodies, ITEP noted that the tourism sector is capable of creating new positions and many advantages are involved.
It has a dynamic workforce a large proportion of whom need not have specialised skills or, where needed, can acquire them relatively easily.
The industry is particularly welcoming of those entering the workforce for the first time.
However, as the vast majority of tourism enterprises in Greece are small- to medium-sized, this creates greater mobility of the workforce which tends to have unfavourable effects on the acquisition of experience and professionalism.
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