Many Greek Bosses Unable to Offer Full-Time Jobs

 

 
More Greeks are in work but over half are struggling to get by on flexible or part-time contracts, data reported in Greek media has suggested.
Although many are pleased to be in work, employers are struggling to hire or retain full-time staff because of rising costs.
Last year, 143,545 people entered the workforce compared to 2016, but 54.8 percent of these new recruits were on flexible forms of employment.
According to a report by Greek newspaper Kathimerini, the rise in such jobs can be pinned on increased employers’ contributions which has raised the cost of hiring full-timers.
Greece’s crippling rate of unemployment – still the highest in the EU – also leaves many forced to take part-time work in the absence of full-time positions.
According to a Bank of Greece survey, part-time employment has turned from a medium-term solution to reducing unemployment to one of the main problems facing the Greek economy.
The percentage of involuntary part-time work increased from 46 percent in 2000 to 71.6 percent in 2015 and is one of the largest in the EU.
According to the survey, this practice is hitting public finances, the viability of the insurance system and automatically limiting public revenues.
In December, the recruitment-redundancy balance was positive at 15,315 jobs compared to 11,132 in the same period last year, according to ERGANI data.
More specifically, recruitment amounted to just over 172,000 — 16,928 more than in December 2016, when this number was 155,136.
However, there were 156,749 redundancies — 12,745 more than the 144,004 registered a year earlier.
The most important finding in the ERGANI numbers was that flexible forms of employment were an integral part of the labor market in December 2017.
It was found that 57.39 percent of new recruitments involved flexible forms of work that month alone.