Hundreds of thousands of jobs set to go
About 580,000 people will lose their jobs in the period from March to July 2020, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) estimates in its bulletin on the Greek economy, stressing the need for the immediate utilization of the 1.4 billion euros from the European program SURE. This would amount to €483 per person for five months.
SEV notes that the state will have to support employment that will be reduced by an estimated 3.7%. That would entail a reduction of 155,000 jobs from the start to the end of this year, with salaried employment shrinking by 101,000 jobs and the self-employed – which typically counts for a third of employment in Greece – decreasing by 54,000.
The analysis of the Federation of Enterprises points to 13,000 salaried jobs being lost in tourism and 88,000 from the other economic sectors, taking into account the size of each sector before the outbreak of the health crisis. However, the economy shows seasonal fluctuations, especially in tourism, with far greater employment levels from March to July before gradually decreasing in the fall.
SEV stressed that the SURE resources must not become unemployment benefits, but instead be used as labor subsidies.
