Many envy Greeks for being “lucky” to have been born in a country with the sun shining 80% of the time year-round. But the sun’s warmth is only but some comfort in front of the problems Greek citizens face.
Greece is notorious for its labour market, which was a European champion for years for all the wrong reasons. Especially during the years of the “Troika” and the country’s fiscal supervision, Greek unemployment rates peaked, especially in young people (aged 18-25).
Namely, in 2013, Greek youth unemployment was at 58.16%. Over the years, this number fell to 36.8% in 2021. At the same time, the unemployment rate of the general population remains at 11.4% in 2022, surpassed only by Spain, when the EU-27 average is at 6%.
This is a true and alarming situation for Greek citizens. When the summer ends and the number of tourists dwindles, Greeks face the hard reality. When tourist season ends, many become unemployed and start receiving benefits. Not necessarily because they are not interested to find something, but because there are not enough jobs for everyone.
Are you interested find a job in Greece, and are you looking for ways to circumvent the problems of the Greek labour market? Then, you have come to the right place. This article will highlight some interesting facts about the Greek labour market and some skills someone needs to succeed.
Let’s get down to work.
Career Planning to Make Informed Decisions
Finding a job in the current Greek labour market conditions is difficult, especially for young people. Whether you are a native Greek or want to come from abroad to work in the country, you should be fully aware of the situation and plan your course of action before doing so.
Career planning is the ability to understand the process behind choosing a career and how to make informed decisions about it. Everyone should have a short-term or long-term vision and follow the steps needed to reach one’s goals.
Career planning should start early, even from the school years, and continue throughout your work life. It would allow you to identify job opportunities in the Greek labour market, constraints, choices, and consequences.
For example, high unemployment rates make it difficult to find a job or move between jobs, especially early in your career. When you are meticulously planning the path to achieve your goals, you should have a detailed plan that can get you from point A to point B. That means that you should know what job experience you need to land the job of your dream and start working from there.
A labour market with high unemployment equals more competition. With that in mind, you should work cleverly by making calculated moves about your career and leaving nothing to chance.
Employability to Find and Secure Jobs
Employability is to be employable. That means having the skills and the competencies you need to distinguish yourself from the competition and find a job easily. Each job has different requirements, but they also have things in common, like the interview process or CV submission.
Especially for young professionals, employability skills are essential in the Greek labour market. With diminished career guidance at school or at the university level, young people need to know at least the answers to some basic questions like: Where can I find job opportunities? What is a good CV, and how to prepare one? What jobs fit my profile? How to prepare myself for a job interview?
Finding a job is not easy and you have many things to consider to be successful. Building on your employability skills is something to prioritize in such a competitive labour market, including exploring creative ways to stand out in a job interview. By doing so, you can find a wider range of job opportunities that, with proper preparation, can increase your chances of landing them.
Resilience to Cope With the Challenges
Finding a job in the Greek labour market is a challenge in itself. In the last decade or so, following the global financial crisis, Greece underwent serious challenges and a series of reforms changing the economic landscape and labour market.
As this was not enough already, and as the Greek economy looked ready to bounce back, the pandemic and the armed conflict in Ukraine added pressure to the already fragile labour market.
Moreover, the loss of human capital was significant during the financial crisis. From 2010 onwards, 400.000 people left Greece (brain drain). Sadly, this mass exodus of people had one thing in common. Their high education educational level. A 2019 ICAP survey found that 26% were university graduates, and 69% were post-graduates.
The above depicts the harsh reality of the Greek labour market. It also highlights our failure to keep that human capital in the country whose majority is educated and trained with taxpayer’s money.
To work in Greece, you need to be resilient. Resilience means being able to cope with challenges in difficult times. And Greece has definitely seen a few in the past years. However, it is unclear whether the Greeks lacked resilience or if the issues they faced were just too much.
Challenges are always to be expected in all settings. Being resilient does not mean that these issues go away. It rather means that by being resilient, we are better off dealing with all adverse situations in the best possible way.
Final Thoughts
To find a job in the devastated by high unemployment Greek labour market, you need to have these three skills to succeed:
- Career planning
- Employability
- Resilience
Each of these can be a response to some of the primary problems that the job market in Greece has.
If you are looking for ways to upskill yourself with competencies relevant to your career management, you should look at the Career Skills MOOC, which is free.
In this MOOC that we have created with our partners in the Career Skills project, you can find 12 training modules covering an equal number of career management skills. This MOOC also includes the career planning, employability, and resilience skills needed to enter the Greek labour market.
To upgrade your career management skills and learn more about our project, visit career-skills.eu.
