Macroeconomic aspect- Unemployment

Source:World Economic Outlook Database October 2014. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2015, from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2014/02/weodata/index.aspx

With all the hassle behind the changing scenes of political environment in Greece, let's not ignore their underlying problems.

Today we will look at the unemployment problem of Greece.

Determining just by looking at the figures, fewer people are unemployed. From the all time high of 28% in Sept 2013, it dropped to 25.8% as at Nov 2014. Optimistically saying there might be more people employed, or there are simply less people seeking jobs, resulting in the decline of their labor force.

The study Unemployment in Greece: trends and main causes described the possible reasons behind the high unemployment rate. (P.584 onwards) Educated individuals seek for jobs which the employers do not need more people to fill in the vacancies, such as high-sounding and public sector instead of jobs with better employment perspectives. The mismatch of skills and the excess of labour supply over demand results in structural unemployment.

The government also failed to match vacancies and job seekers, showing their failure in turning frictional unemployment into a way of reducing long-term structural unemployment.

In addition to the above mentioned two reasons, the authors also mentioned the good benefits provided to unemployed people, strict employment regulations, and the immigrants who compete for the labour demand, all contributing to less people being employed.

Hope you enjoy this explanation of Greece's high unemployment rate! Stay tuned and see you soon!

Credits to:
Theodore Katsanevas and llias Livanos, Unemployment in Greece:
trends and main causes
Trading Economics, Greek Unemployment Rate 1998-2015