The report says that the largest reduction in job insecurity from 2015 to 2022 occurred in Greece and Spain – more than 8 percentage points – narrowing the gap with the OECD average.
The reduction in the case of Greece is due to the significant reduction in the unemployment rate and the generous income protection measures during the pandemic as well as the impact from the introduction of the Minimum Guaranteed Income.
Unemployment fell from just under 18% in December 2019 to close to 10% in April 2024, while labor force participation rose more than 2% between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of this year.
Conditions in the labor market were tight, as can be seen from the difficulty of finding workers in various branches of the Greek economy. The number of job vacancies per unemployed person in Greece was more than fourfold in the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, marking the largest increase among OECD countries. The report notes that the difficulty of finding workers is a global phenomenon that intensified following the pandemic, but while in other countries it had subsided in the fourth quarter of 2023, in Greece it continued to reach a new high level.
The average nominal wage in Greece was up nearly 7% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, and the real wage was up more than 3%, with the minimum wage rising more than 20% over the past 5 years. OECD analysis shows that real average hourly wages for workers in industries where this is lower – such as the catering and accommodation sector – rose 21% between the first quarter of this year and the fourth quarter of 2019, more than in other OECD countries. On the other hand, the increase was marginal for industries with a medium level of pay, such as in industry, transport and real estate.
These developments in Greece took place once morest the backdrop of a resilient global labor market, with the unemployment rate falling in 2023 to record low levels in several countries and, correspondingly, the employment rate rising to high levels.
The real minimum wage this May increased by an average of 12.8% compared to May 2019 in the 30 OECD countries that have this institution, a percentage much higher than the increase recorded in the same period by the average real wage . Total employment increased in April by 3.8% compared to the pre-pandemic period and participation in the labor force increased by 1.3 percentage points.
The impact of the green transition
The OECD recommends that countries prepare for the changes brought regarding by the green transition to address the climate crisis.
It predicts that in 2030 employment in European industries – such as fossil fuels, transport services, mining and labour-intensive manufacturing – will fall by 14%. It also estimates that workers in high-emission industries in OECD countries face a 24% greater drop in annual earnings in the six years following they are laid off, and notes that they should be supported to ease their transition to new green jobs. economy, with well-targeted education and mobility measures.
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