Employment in Greece: Which unemployed people find work – The businesses that hire them

The footprint of the businesses, but also of the unemployed who participated and joined the programs of the Hellenic Manpower Employment Organization in the last three years is included in a survey of the service, which was deemed necessary in order to plan the next programs.

The official figures show that very small and small businesses, mainly active in trade, wholesale and retail, joined the programs.

Participating businesses hire women, long-term unemployed, young people and people over 55, mainly in Attica and Central Macedonia.

In detail, the number of companies that participated in these programs amounts to 47,816. Of these, the largest percentage, namely 69% or 32,940, participated with a single beneficiary, the maximum number being 42 beneficiaries in one enterprise, with 93% of enterprises participating with 1 to 3 beneficiaries.

The distribution of the beneficiaries based on the size of the companies that participated in the new programs of the last 3.5 years clearly shows that mainly very small companies employing between one and nine people are the ones that apply to participate in the programs. The recruitment rate in these amounts to 90%. Next come small businesses (10 to 49 employees) with a much lower percentage of 7%.

The activities carried out by the companies that joined are: Wholesale and Retail Trade 33% followed by Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities with 15%.

56% of the beneficiaries of the programs live outside the regions of Attica (23%) and Central Macedonia (21%).

Women and the 30-54 age group

The largest percentage of beneficiaries (59%) concerns women, while in terms of age groups, the 30 to 54 age group ranks first with a percentage of 44% of the total. They are followed by the age group of young people up to 29 years old (40%) and the group of people aged 55 and over with a percentage of 16%.

The largest percentage of beneficiaries concern Secondary Education graduates (40%) followed by Tertiary Education graduates at a rate of 33%.

Of particular interest is the fact that 48% of beneficiaries were out of the labor market for up to six months, 21% for more than 24 months, 20% for 12 to 23 months and 11% for 7 to 12 months. 59% were non-long-term unemployed.

The average duration of unemployment of the beneficiaries is 16 full months.