Employment in Greece grew 2.1 pct in 2015 and it is expected to grow at around the same rate in 2016 and 2017, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday. In its Employment Outlook 2016 report released today, OECD said the employment rate in Greece grew to 44.7 pct in the fourth quarter of 2015 from 43.1 pct in the same period in 2014 and it was expected to grow to 45.4 pct this year and 46.8 pct in the fourth quarter of 2017.
OECD said, however, that the current employment level was nine percentage points lower compared with 2007 levels (before the crisis) and that this difference was the largest among OECD member-states. “The employment deficit is still large in Greece, Ireland and Spain (where the difference is currently 9, 7.9 and 8.5 percentage points). Although it is encouraging that employment is rising fast enough in these countries that have been hit mostly by the crisis, a full recovery of job positions is still far and there is a danger that it could not be reached before a new recession,” the report noted.
The unemployment rate in Greece fell to 24.2 pct in 2015 from 25.9 pct in 2014 and was projected to fall further to 23.9 pct and 22.6 pct in 2016 and 2017, respectively, the OECD said.
Real wages fell during the crisis, with the real hourly pay falling 22.5 pct in the last quarter of 2015. OECD said that hourly labor productivity in Greece as 21.1 pct lower.
“The work of healing the labor market is done by half: return to work but at a cost,” Angel Gurria, secretary-general of OECD said.
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