The Press Office of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs issued a statement on the “packages of multiple support measures that constitute the roadmap to protect workers and the vulnerable from the effects of the pandemic.”
According to Yannis Vrooutsis, “the ERGANI October 2020 recorded the smallest job losses in comparison, while the unemployment rate of ELSTAT August 2020 confirmed the effectiveness of the measures we have implemented so far, limiting the negative impact on the labour market.”
The announcement in detail.
The targeted packages we have implemented so far directly and actively support the labour market by effectively protecting jobs and comparatively more than the packages of the rest of the European countries.
This was confirmed by the recently published Eurostat survey.
Specifically, the European Statistical Office ranks Greece as one of the most effective European countries in job protection in the second quarter (Q2) of 2020 as the percentage of workers who lost their jobs in Greece did not exceed 2% during the first phase of the pandemic while in other European countries such as Spain, it exceeded Italy which was around 5% (Fig. 1).
The payroll employment flow balance of the P/UP “ERGANI”, for the month of October 2020, recorded the smallest loss of -33,356 jobs over 12 years (Fig. 2), while full-time employment recorded an increase of 50,14% (Fig. 3) in the period January-October 2020 for new jobs.
Moreover, according to the latest ELSTAT results, for the month of August 2020 (Fig.4), the general unemployment rate stood at 16.8%, showing a marginal decrease of -0.1% compared to August 2019 and -0.2% compared to July 2020.
In the battle against the second wave of COVID-19, the Government and the Ministry of Labour remain constantly vigilant, intervening in a timely, responsible and decisive manner with multiple packages of support measures that constitute the roadmap to protect workers and the weak from the effects of the pandemic and act as a shield for the Greek economy against the second wave of COVID-19.
Undoubtedly, the second lockdown will affect the Greek economy in general and, by extension, employment and the labour market. Nevertheless, we are continuing our efforts with active policies and employment tools at our disposal to shield the labour market:
- 21 interventions-measures to protect workers, businesses and the unemployed
- The new open and dynamic programmes of the OAED that facilitate the entry of unemployed people into the labour market with new recruitments by companies. Currently, OAED is implementing 7 open programs of 38,600 new positions, with subsidy rates of 60-100% of salary and insurance contributions.
- The open programme of 100,000 new subsidised jobs, with full coverage of all social security contributions (employer-employee) for six months, regardless of sector and business activity.
- Total reduction from 1.1.2021 by 3.9% of non-wage costs which is an important structural change as it improves the income of workers, businesses and directly supports businesses that want to create new jobs especially in this difficult period.
